
Glass 
Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




THE DEVIL 

SCULPTURE ON NOTRE DAME, PARIS 



'MAGIC" 

BLACK AND WHITE 
CHARMS AND COUNTER CHARMS 



DIVINATION AND DEMONOLOGY 

AMONG THE 

Hindus, Hebrews, Arabs and Egyptians 

'Egyptian Demonology," " Jewish Magic and Demonology," "De- 
monology Among the Arabs, Hindus and Moslems," ' Modes of 
Divining Among the Arabs," Magic and Religion," 
"Magic and Demonology," Illegal Magic," 'Legal 
Magic," "Assyrian Magic," "Babylonian and 
Assyrian Divination," Phoenician and 
Syrian Magic and Demonology," "De- 
monology of the Pseudepigraphical 
Writings, ""Hebrew and San- 
scrit Used in Connection 
with Divination." 



AN EPITOME 

OF 

"Supernaturalism" Magic, Black, White and Natural; 
Conjuring and Its Relation to Prophecy 

Including Biblical and Old Testament Terms and Words for Magic 

Being the work adopted by all advanced students for instruction, espec- 
ially designed as a Cyclopaedia of Magic, Divination and 
Demonology, Biblical References and Biblical Terms. 

Present Edition prepared for publication under the Editorship of Dr. L, TV. de LAURENCE, by 

T. WITTON DAVIES, B.A. (Lond.), Ph.D.(Leip.) 

Professor of Old Testament Literature, North Wales Baptist College, Bangor; Lecturer in 
Semitic Languages, University College, Bangor; Member of the following Soci- 
eties: Royal Asiatic; Biblical Archaeology; German Oriental; French 
Asiatic, and Fellow of the Anthropological Institute. 



de LAURENCE, SCOTT & CO. 

CHICAGO, ILL., U. S. A. 
1910 






\ 



v^ 



Copyright, 1910 
By 
de LAURENCE, SCOTT & CO. 



SPECIAL NOTICE 

The illustrations, cover design and contents of this Volume 
are protected by copyright, and must not be reproduced or 
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PREFACE 

This treatise "was presented to the University of 
Leipzig, July, 1897, according to the rule requiring 
such a dissertation to be presented and accepted before 
the candidate is allowed to proceed to the examina- 
tions prescribed for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 
in the University. The dissertation has to be printed 
and 200 copies presented to the University within 
one year from the time when the final examination 
[was passed. The limits of time and of space, and 
the need that the dissertation should be printed 
essentially as it was accepted by the Philosophical 
faculty of the University, made it impossible to 
introduce much change. Since writing it, however, 
1 have read and thought a great deal about the 
subjects with which my dissertation deals; some 
slight results of that will be seen in the correction of 
my MS. as well as in references to books newly 
published. Further results — results too, I hope, of 
continued reading and reflection — may show them- 
selves at a future time. 



V11I PREFACE 

The " Vita " or " Life * is left at the end, as it had 
to be printed in the copies sent to the University. 

I will not close this preface without warmly 
acknowledging the uniform courtesy and kindness 
received from the Professors of the celebrated 
University of Leipzig whose classes I joined. I 
would like especially to ackno\ /ledge my indebted- 
ness to Prof. Socin, one of the greatest living 
teachers of Arabic. Dr. Dillman, of Berlin, and 
Dr. Socin, of Leipzig, were teachers at least as great 
as any I have known, and I am thankful to an ever 
kind Providence to have been able to benefit from 
their instruction, and from their example of industry 
and thoroughness., 

T\ WITTON DAVIES. 

Midland Baptist College, *) M~ WT?T ~„ fl *. 

tt „ r< ™^ r IS OTi INGHAM. 

University College, ) 

Aug. 12, 1898. 



CONTENTS 



f?AG£- 

Literature . ;-.- v ^ . a - • b* 

Introduction r , . . . . g . . i 

Definition of Magic : I 

, Magicians a class ■•'■... . V . V . 2 

/Black and White Magic, Conjuring, Natural Magic . 3 
Magic, wide and narrow sense of .... 4 

Some terms explained ', ... . . . 5 

Divination briefly defined and described . . . 6 
Necromancy . . . . . . . . 6 

Demonology v /. . '. 7 

Common origin of the preceding .... 8 
Magic without Animism or Supernaturalism . . 16 

Sympathetic Magic . 17 

.Magic and Religion .18 

Magic and Science .25 

Magic and Divination 27 

Magic and Demonology .28 

i. Magic * . j . "30 

Traces and Survivals in the Old Testament . . 30 

Biblical Terms . • 40 

Old Testament Terms . . . . . . 4t 

Old Testament Words for Magic or in Relation to it . 44 : 
Magic in the New Testament . . . . . 59 

Magic in Post-Biblical Judaism . . . . .61 

^ Magic among Arabs and Moslems .... 63 

Assyrian Magic . .67 

Illegal Magie . . . . V . . . 68 
Legal Magic . , . ". [". \ '. .69 
Egyptian Magic . .. . . . . V . 70 



X CONTENTS' 

II. Divination • •••"*•; ■'"' • 72 

Fuller Definition and Description 7 7. r K 72 
Divination and Biblical Prophecy .' . t . 73 
Methods of Divination referred to in the Old Testa- 
ment . . . . . • . . . 74 
Hebrew terms used in connection with Divination . 78 
Biblical Necromancy and terms for * . . 85 
Divination in Post- Biblical Judaism ...» 90 
Divination among the Arabs . V .90 
Modes of Divining among the Arabs . . L k , 92 
Presages . .... * . . . 92 
Islam and Divination . . . t . .92 
Babylonian and Assyrian Divination ... 93 
Egyptian Divination 94 

III. Demonology ........ 95 

Demonology in the Old Testament : * Traces and 

Survivals . . . . . . . 95 

Demonology in the Apocrypha 100 

Demonology in the New Testament .... 102 
Antichrist . . '. . . . . . , 106 

Demonology of Josephus 107 

Demonology of the Pseudepigraphical Writings . 10S 
Demonology in Post-Biblical Judaism . . .109 

Countercharms . . 112 

Sources of Jewish Magic and Demonology . .114 
Demonology among the Arabs arid Moslems . . 119 
Countercharms . . .V . . . . 125 
Assyrian Demonology. . M . . ; . .. 125 
Countercharms . .' ••; '. ' V . . '.127 
Egyptian Demonology . V . . K . 128 
Countercharms . . K . :. . . .128 
Phoenician and Syrian Magic and Demonology . .129 



BOOKS AND EDITIONS CONSULTED OR 
REFERRED TO (WITH ABBREVIATIONS) 

D'Alviella. (Hibbert) Lectures on the Origin and Growth of 

the Conception of God. London, 1892. 
Anz. Zur Frage nach dem Ursprunge des Gnostiztsmus 

Wilhelm Anz. Leipzig, 1896. 
Baudissen. Studien zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte von 

Wolf Wilhelm Grafen Baudissen. Leipzig, 1876 and 

1878. 2 vols. 
Bochartus, Sam. Hierozoicon. Editio Tertise. Lugd. et Traj. 
1682. 

Bousset. The Antichrist Legend. By W. Bousset. Trans* 

lated by A. H. Keane. London, 1896. 
Brecher. Das trans cenden tale Magie und magische Heilarten 

im Talmud. Wien, 1850. 
Brewster. Letters on Natural Magic. By Sir David Brewster, 

K.H., &c. London, 5th edition, 1842. 
Brinton. Religions of Primitive Peoples^ By D. G. Brinton, 

LL.D., &c. London and New York, 1897. 

Burton. Anatomy of Melancholy. By Henry Burton. London, 
1861. 

Caird. * The Evolution of Religion. Gifford Lectures. By 

Edward Caird. 2 vols. Glasgow, 1893. 
Caird J. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. By 

John Caird. Glasgow, 1880. 
Caldwell. Dravidian Grammar. By Bishop Caldwell. (Page 

518 ft, Demonology among the Dravidians.} 



Xll LITERATURE 

Charles. The Book of Enoch. By R. H. Charles. Oxford, 

1893. 
Crook. Folk-lore of Northern India. By W. Crook. 2 vols. 

2nd ed. London, 1896. 
Delit2$ch, Fried. Prolegomena, &c. Von Dr. Fried. Delitzsch,. 

Leipzig, 1886. 
Delitzsch, Franz (father). Various Commentaries and Articles 

in Dictionaries. 
Dennys. The Folk-lore of China. By B. N. Dennys. 

London, 1876. 
Doughty. Travels in Arabia Deserta. 2 vols. By C. M. 

Doughty. Cambridge, 1888. 
Edersheim. Life and Times of the Messiah. By Alfred 

Edersheim. London, 1888. 
Eisenmenger. Entdectes Judenthum. 2 vols. By J. A. Eisen- 

menger. Konigsberg, 171 1, 1714. 

Ency. Brit. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 9th edition. 

Ennemoser. The History of Magic. By Joseph Ennemoser. 
Englished by Wm. Howitt. 2 vols. London, 1854. 

EwakL DieLehrederBibelvonGott. 4vols. Leipzig, 1871-76. 

Findlay. The Epistles to the Thessalonians, with Introduc- 
tion, Notes, &c. By Rev. G. G. Findlay, M.A. 
Cambridge, 1896* 

Frazer. The Golden Bough. A Study in Comparative 
Religion. By J. G. Frazer. 2 vols. London, 1890. 

Freytag. Einleitung in das Studium der arabischen Sprache, 

Von G. W. Freytag. Bonn, 1861. 
Geserjius. 1. Thesaurus. 

2. Lexicon. 12th edition. Buhl. 

3. Hebraische Grammatik. 26te Ausgabe. (Kautsch.) 
Leipzig, 1896. (An English Translation published by 

^Clarendon Press at £1 is. has just made its appear- 
ance. Why not at a price which students might be 
expected to afford? The German edition cost me 
bound, with discount,- about $s. &/., and the English 



LITERATURE XU1 

edition includes no more, though it is better printed and; 

also bound.) 
Ginsburg. The KabbalaK. LoncTon, 1865. 
Goldziher. Abhandlungen zur arabischen Phiiologie. Von. 

Ignaz Goldziher : erste TheiL Leiden, 1896. 
Granger. The Worship of the Romans. By F. Granger," 

D.Lit. London, 1895. 
Grant. The Mysteries of all Nations. By Jas. Grant Leith, 

1880. 
Grimm. Teutonic Mythology. By Jacob Grimm. 4 vols. 

(Continuous paging.) English translation. By J. S. 

Stallybrass. London. 1882— 1888. 
Hegel. Vorlesungen irber die Philosophic der Religion. 2te- 

Ausgabe. Berlin, 1840. 
Herzog l > Real Encyclopadie. By Herzog, &c. 1st and 2nd 
Herzog 2 5 editions respectively. 

Hillebrandt* Rituallitefatur. Vedische Opfer und Zauber. 

Strassburg, 1897. 

Horst. Zauberbibliothek : 6 Theile von G. C. Horst. Mainz. 
1821— 1826. 

Hughes. Dictionary of Islam. By. T. P. Hughes. London, 
1885. 

jahn. Der Aberglaube des bosen Blicks bei den Alten. 

Abhand. der sachs. Academ, der Wissenschaft. 

185S. 
jevons. An introduction to the History of Religion.. By 

Frank Byrom Jevons. London, 1896. 
Joel. Der Aberglaube und die Stellung des Judensthums zu 

demselben. Von Rabbi David Joel. Parts i.and 2. 

Breslau, 1881 and 1883. 

Josephus, Works of. English Translation by Whiston. 
King. Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, being the * prayers of 
the lifting up of the hands." By L. King. London, 
1896. 



XIV UTERATURg 

Kohqt. judische Angel, u. Damon ologie. Von A. Kohul? 

Leipzig, 1866. 
Lane. The Thousand and One Nights. By E. W. Lane. 

3 vols. London, 1839. 
Lang. 1. Myth, Ritual and Religion. By Andrew Lang, 

2 vols. London, 1887. 

2. Custom and Myth. By Andrew Lang. London, 1897. 

3. The Making of Religion. By Andrew Lang. London, 
1898. 

Lenormant. J. Chaldean Magic. By F. Lenormant. London, 

1877. 
2. Divination, et la science des presages. Par F. Lenor* 

mant. Paris, 1875. 
Levy. Neu hebraisches u, chaldaisches Wdrterbuch. Von 

Prof. Dr Jacob Levy. 4 vols. Leipzig, 1876 to 1889. 

Lyall. Asiatic Studies, Religious and Social. By Sir Alfred 
C. Lyall, K.C.B., CLE. London, 1882. 

Meiners. Geschiohte aller Religionen. By Prof. Meiners. 

2 vols. i8c6. 
Michaelis, J. D. Commentaries on the Laws of Moses. From 

the German. 4 vols. London, 18 14. 
Muhlau. De Prov. Aguri et Lemuelis. Leip. 1869. 
Nevius. Demon Possession and Allied Themes. By J. L. 

Nevi'us. London, 1 896. 
N. T. New Testament. 
O. T. Old Testament. ; 
Prym and Socin. Der neu-Aramaische Dialect des Tur 'Abdin. 

Von Eugen Prym u. Albert Sooin. 

Text u. Ubersetzung. Zwei theile. Gottingen, i88r. 

Renan, Ernest. History of the People of Israel. 3 vols. 
London, 1888— 189 1.. 

Riehm. Riehm's Handworterbuch des Biblischen Alterthums. 
2nd edition, 1894. 



[ LITERATURE XV 

RoskorT. Geschichte des Teufels von Gustav RoskofT. 2 Bde. 

Leipzig, 1869. 

Schorr, y^nn Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen iiber Jii- 
dische Geschichte, Litteratur u. Alterthum. Frankfort a. 
Maine, 1865. Heft - vii., 1872, Heft. viii. 

Scholz. Gotzendienst u. Zauberwesen bei den alten Hebraern. 

By Dr. Paul Scholz. Regensburg, 1877. 
Schultz. Biblical Theology of the Old Testament. By H. 

Schultz. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1893. 
ScherikeL Bibel-Lexicon. By Dr. D. Schenkel, and others. 
Schrader. Die Keilinscheiften u. d. alte Testament. Giessen. 

2nd ed., 1883. 
Scott. The Existence of Evil Spirits. By (Rev.) Walter Scott. 

London, 1853. (Not Sir Walter Scott, the celebrated 

novelist, who wrote a book on Witchcraft, &c.) 

Smend. Lehrbuch der altestamentlichen Religionsgeschichte. 

Freibourg u. Leipzig, 1893. 
Smith, W. Bible Dictionary. 2nd ed., 1894. 

Smith, W. R. 1. Journal of Philology, xiii. pp. 273—288 ; 
xiv. pp. 113— 128. 
2. The Religion of the Semites. By W. Robertson Smith* 
Edinburgh, 1889. 

Spencer. De Legibus Hebraeorum ritualibus earumque rationi- 

bus. 2 vols. Tubingse, 1732. ed. C. M. PfafT. 
Socin. Guide to Palestine. Baedeker's. 
Stade. Geschichte des Volkes Israel. Von Dr. B. Stade, 

Berlin. 2 vols., 1887-88. 
Streane. A Translation of the Treatise Chagigah from the 

Babylonian Talmud. J3y Rev. A. W. Streane, M.A. 

Cambridge, 1891. 
Tallqyist. Die Assyrische Beschworungserie Maqlu, &c. Von 

Knut L. Tallqvist. (In Acta Societatis Scientiarun 

Fennicas Tomus xx., 1895.) 



xvl LITERATURE 

Tiele. Geschichte der Religion im Alterthum. Von C. P. 

Tiele. i Band. Gotha, 1896. 
Tylor. Primitive Culture. 2 vols. 3rd ed. 1891. 
Torreblanca. De Magia. Editio Novissima. Lugduni, 1678. 
Tuch. Coninventar iiber die Genesis. 2te Auflage, 187 1. 
Waite. The Occult Sciences. By Arthur Ed. Waite. London, 

1891. 
Weber. Judische Theologie. Von Dr. Terd. Weber. Zweite 

verbesserte Auflage. Leipzig, 1897. 
Wellhausen. j. Reste arabische Heiderstums. 2te Auflage. 

Berlin, 1897. 2: Isr. u. Jiid. Geschichte, 1895. 3- Die 

Kleinen Propheten, 1892. 
Wiedemann. Religion of the Ancient Egyptians. By Alfred 

Wiedeman, Ph.D. London, 1897. 

Wmer, iii. Biblisches Realworterbuch. Von Dr. G. B. Winer, 

&c. Dritte Ausgabe, 1840. 
Z. A. W. Zeitschrift fiir die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. 

Stade. 
Z. D. M. G. Zeitschrift der Deut. Morgenl. Gesellschaft. 
Zimmem. Die Beschworungstafeln Surpu. Leipzig, 1896. 

(Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Babylonischen Religion. 

Von Dr. Heinrich Zimmem. ite Lieferung.) 



MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND 
DEMONOLOGY 

INTRODUCTION. 

Magic, Divination, Necromancy, and Demonology are so 
closely connected in their character and history, that it 
is impossible to lay down lines between them which are 
fixed and exclusive* 
First of all, let each be defined as clearly as may be. 

Definition of Magic. 

Magic may be briefly defined as the attempt on man's 
part to have intercourse with spiritual and supernatural 
beings, and to influence them for his benefit. It rests 
upon the belief so prevalent in low civilizations, that the 
powers in the world on which human well-being depends 
are controlled by spiritual agents, and that these agents 
are to be conciliated and made friends of by words, acts, 
and so forth, which are thought to please them. There 
is in this something analogous to religious worship and 
prayer. Indeed, magic and religion have many and close 
affinities, as will be more fully shown. 1 All magic ;% 

1 See "Magic and Religion/' p7i8. N 



2 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGV 

incipient religion, for it is an appeal to spirits believect tl? 
be more powerful and wise than man, and the methods 
employed to secure what is desired are no other than 
supplications to the goodwill of the beings consulted. 
Magic may be described as a tow kind of religion in 
which the ethical element is either subordinated or sacri- 
ficed to other and inferior elements. v Incantations arc 
prayers, only that the main stress is laid on the mode of 
utterance rather than on the moral condition of the 
agent. Plants, drugs, etc., when burnt to appease the 
good spirits, and protect against evil ones, are to be 
compared with sacrifices, and especially with incense, 
which last obtains at the present time in many branches 
of the Christian Church. In the mythology of the Vedas 
it is hard, if not impossible, to distinguish between 
magical acts and sacrifices ; in each case something is 
done with the view of propitiating higher beings. 1 

The unethical means employed by magic correspond 
to the unethical view that is held of the beings trafficked 
with. As the conception of these beings rises, animism * 
passes through polytheism on to monotheism. At this 
last stage the one God believed in is just and holy, 
requiring on the part of all who have to do with Him 
moral qualifications, these above all else, these almost 
to the exclusion of all other qualifications. Magic has 
now given way to religion. Prayer and fellowship have 
taken the place of mere words and acts. 

Magicians a Class. 

Hegel has very correctly pointed out 8 that where, 
magic is believed in, not everyone is able or allowed to 

1 Hilleb.andt, p. 167 f. 2 See this ten» explained at p. SJ^ 

3 i. p. 2$ j. 



INTRODUCTION 3 

practise it. Special individuals are chosen on account of 
their superior knowledge of the formulae, methods of 
operation, etc., believed to prevail with the powers which 
it is sought to per$uade„ This select body of men 
corresponds to the priests, which in the lower forms of 
religion are credited with extraordinary knowledge of 
Divine secrets, and with unusual influence over Deity* 
Indeed, it is hard to say when exactly the magician 
resigns, and the priest enters upon office* To some 
extent the conception and conduct which properly belong 
to magic, accompany religion in all its historical 
forms. 1 

•Magic has been made to consist especially in the art or 
compelling spirits or deities, or the Deity, to do the will 
of him who utters the needful words, or performs the 
requisite acts. In this it has been made to stand apart 
from religion, as by d'Alviella, 2 and Professor E. Caird. 3 
So also apparently Hegel, 4 but cf. p. 23 ff M "Religion and 
Magic. " This, however, is not strictly correct, because, 
as already stated, all magic is a sort of religion; and 
certainly in most cases, the magician does not seek to 
use force in the exercise of his art : else what do we 
make of incantations and charms ? 

Black and White Magic, Conjuring, Natural 
Magic. 

In the lowest stages of culture the spirits communicated J 
with are not separated into good and bad, just because 
the categories of good and bad have not risen into 
conscious thought, though implied in the v^ry earliest 
thinking. Later cm, traffic with evil spirits, particularly 

Sec intra, p. 24. * See p. 87 ff. * i. p. 225. 4 i. p. 281. 



4 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

when the purpose was to injure others, was called Blaci 
Magic, or the Black Art. White Magic, the contrary 
term, stood for intercourse with well-disposed spirits,. 
In our own time, and amorigst civilized peoples, White 
Magic means no more than the art of performing clever 
tricks with the hands, etc. Similarly the word conjure 
has, in modern English, the present meaning which 
White Magic has among ourselves, though originally it 
denotes exorcise. A conjurer — well, children know who 
he is, perhaps even better than their soberer sires. 
Sir David Brewster's interesting little book on " Natural 
Magic M gives an account of the way in which an 
acquaintance with the secrets of nature and of art have 
been used to support claims of being on intimate terms 
with the spiritual world. But the expression V Natural 
Magic 1 ' was used in this very same sense long before Sir 
David's time. Even, Lord Bacon, in his u Advancement 
of Learning," has it with this signification. 

Magic, Wide and Narrow Sense of. 

In a narrow, but later sense, magic has to do with 
feats of power and not of knowledge. For this reason 
the relation between magic and divination has been 
compared to that existing between miracles and 
prophecy. But it will be more fully shown later on 
that at the beginning, and at the present among back- 
ward races, this distinction is not drawn. Indeed, 
divination is hardly the right word to use for what is 
so called at this stage, since it is really magic applied to 
future events. The future is not so much foretold as^ 
constituted, or made, by the art of the magician.; 

1 See injra % p. 27., 



introduction 5 

Some Terms Explained. 

The German word zaubern has been variously ex- 
plained, but the etymology having the best support is 
that which connects it with the Gothic taujan, Old High 
German zouwan (=the modern German thun. Cf. English 
done). All these words mean to do, magic, relating to 
feats of power (a later and narrower sense, however, see 
before). Compare with these terms the Middle Latin 
factum, the Italian fattura, the Portuguese feitigo (fetish), 
the Spanish hecho, all meaning primarily something 
done, and secondarily magic. It was Grimm (Jacob) 
who first suggested the above derivation of the German 
word. 

The English word magic is, in our language, primarily 
a noun, but it represents an adjective in the classical 
tongue, the corresponding noun for art being under- 
stood, and sometimes expressed in Latin (Ars Magica) 
and in Greek (ftov ] riyyt]). The noun from which 
the classical adjective is derived is ftayos, plural /±ayct, 
the priestly caste among the Medes, Persians and Par- 
thians. The root mag has been connected with the Indo- 
European root makdy 1 great, but without the slightest 
ground. Nor is it the Persian or Zend word denoting 
wise in divine things, 2 wise, excellent, priest. 8 The 
word came over as the thing it stood for did, from the 
Accadians to the Babylonians and Persians. Lenor- 
mant 4 traces the word to the Accadian imga % which 
means " respected," " honoured. " Schrader 5 translates 
the word by tiefandachtig (very devout), or tiefgekhrt (very 
learned), adopting the same etymology. 

Cf. Lat. magnus ; Welsh, mawr (from Lat. major). 
Porpbyr ., de Abstinentia, 4, 16. a Waite, p. it. 

4 " Chaldean Magic." * p. 257. 



6 magic, divination, <\nd demonology 

Divination * 

Divination may be provisionally defined ! as the attempt 
on man's part to obtain from the spiritual world super- 
normal? or superhuman knowledge. This knowledge 
relates for the most part to the future, but it may also 
have to do with things in the present, such as where 
s6me hidden treasure is to be found. Divination takes 
for granted the primitive belief that spiritual beings 
exist, are approachable by man, have means of know- 
ledge which man has not, and are t willing upon certain 
conditions known to diviners to communicate tahe special 
knowledge w r hich they are believed to possess. 

When, as among the Israelites, divination co-existed 
with monotheism, or at any rate with monolatry, to use 
Stade's word, 3 the modes of divination were but methods 
of consulting deity. The Old Testament prophet, under 
such circumstances, differs from the diviner mainly in 
this, that he makes his appeal direct to God, without 
the employment of such means as heathen soothsayers 
used, which means are referred to in the Old Testament 
and often with approval. 4 But both diviner and prophet 
might, and indeed actually did, believe in Yahwe : both 
also sought guidance from Him. 

Necromancy. 

Necromancy is a part of divination and not a thing 
distinct in itself. Its peculiar mark is, that the infor- 
mation desired is sought from the ghosts of deceased 
persons. Divination embraces all attempts to obtain 

1 See a fuller treatment of the subject at p. 72 fi. 
,* Andrew Lang's word in his new book, " The Making of Religion." 
\*j. p. 439. 4 bee infra, p, 74 ff. 



INTRODUCTION 

/secret knowledge from the denizens of the spiritual 
world, so that necromancy comes under it, and is a part 
of it. Indeed, the word itself denotes literally divination 
(/xavrcttt) by consulting the dead (yc/cpos). 

Demonology. 

The etymology of the word demonology is no safe 
guide a& to what the word itself means, for the Greek 
Sot/xwv denotes a supernatural being that stands midway 
between gods and men. He may be good or bad. 
Lecky says : l " A daemon in the philosophy of Plato, 
though inferior to a deity, was not an evil spirit, and it 
is extremely doubtful whether the existence of evil 
daemons was known to the Greeks or Romans till about 
the time of the advent of Christ." 

We commonly understand by demonology the belief 
which is a part of advanced animism 2 — that there exist 
evil spirits which are more or less responsible for the 
misfortunes which assail men. In the earliest stage it 
4s probable that good and evil spirits wer6 not distin- 
guished, 3 Men must from the very first have noticed in 
themselves and in others, dispositions and tendencies 
as revealed iii conduct. Some men would be character- 
ized as prevailingly good, others as prevailingly bad. I 
am not saying, for I do not believe, that the moral 
category is a merely utilitarian one, but we judge 
of character by acts. If it was man's thought that made 
him believe in the existence of innumerable beings in 
nature, living like himself, he must by the same process 
soon have divided spirits into good and bad ? also resem- 
bling men. 

European Morals, i. p. 404. 3 See infira % p. 24. 

* See infra, p. 13. 



8 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

In primitive animism 1 and in the simple nature-spirit 
beliefs that prevailed in the midst of the Turanian 
tribes, 2 no hierarchy of spiritual beings can b& traced. 
On the other hand, among the Babylonians, Assyrians, 
the Median Magi, and, at least in later times, among the 
Zorcastrians of Persia, evil spirits as well as good ones 
were organized into a complete .system, with a supreme 
ruler, having under him subordinate chiefs. We meet 
with this developed demonology and- arigelology in the 
Old and New Testaments, 3 ia the Pseudepigraphical, 
Apocryphal and other writings. 

Common Origin of *he Preceding. 

All the beliefs which have been noticed take their 
rise in the primitive and instinctive impulse of human 
beings to interpret what they see outside of themselves 
in terms of their own personality. The earliest know- 
ledge which man acquires is that of himself as a living, 
conscious, thinking being. In a vague way he may be 
said to perceive the outer world as reflected in his 
thought before he rises to the conception of himself as 
standing apart from it. But surely the first object he 
knows is himself. This knowledge obtained, all other 
things are interpreted in its light, just as coloured glass 
makes what is seen through it have the same colour as 
itself. As man, in the wildness of unrestrained imagina- 
tion, looks forth upon rivers and stars, he pictures them 
as living just as he is living. Have they not many of 
the marks of life and personality ? Trees and plants 
stand up and apart from their environment ; they also 
appear to eat and drink, and they produce fruit and 

1 S e infra, p. 9. a Lenormant's " Chald. Magic," chs. xv. and xvi. 

a See infra, p. 95 ff. and p. 102 fF. 



INTRODUCTION 9 

beget offspring. Stones resist all efforts to move or 
destroy them : they often seem to move of their own 
accord, injuring and even killing animals and men. 

11 Man gazes," says Turgot, " upon the profound ocean 
of being, but what at first he discerns is not the bed 
hidden beneath its waters, but only the reflection of his 
own face." 

It would be too much to say that at this low level of 
thought the doctrine , of soul as distinct from body has 
been reached, but it very soon is reached. In his 
growth to this higher thought, man is guided by his own 
experience. At a very early period, before there were 
words to suggest it, he must have come to feet that he 
is not the body : that, on the contrary, his truer selr 
owns and controls the body. In other words, soul is 
differentiated from body. This twofold view of himself 
is almost unthinkingly applied to other things believed 
to be living. 

The word (i animism " is used to express these 
primordial beliefs of man. It was first used in this 
Connection by Dr. E. B. Tylor in a lecture delivered by 
him in 1867, before the Royal Society, and in the official 
reports of this society the lecture -appears exactly as it 
was delivered. 

The following sentences are quoted from this lecture 
by Mr. -Herbert Spencer, and occur in a letter by him in 
14 Literature," February 19, 1898, p. 211.- 

" The worship of such spirits (in general natural 
objects) found among the lower races over almost the 
whole world, is commonly known as * fetishism/ It is clear 
that this child-like theory of the animation of all nature 
lies at the root of what we call mythology. It would 
probably add to the clearness of our conception of the 



10 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

state of mind which thus sees in all nature the action of 
animated life and the presence of innumerable spiritual 
beings, if we give it' the name of animism instead of 
fetishism/' Andrew Lang facetiously calls this kind of 
animism— All-alivism. 1 But in his " Primitive Cul- 
ture,"* chs. xi. toxvii;, Dr. Tylor denotes by the term the 
44 doctrine of souls and of spiritual beings," 8 the existence 
of the latter being inferred from that of the former* 
This more advanced doctrine than mere All-auvism is 
attained by man from his reflections upon the difference 
between the living and Ihe dead, and from observations 
of what takes place in sleep, swoons, dreams, etc* 

It has been suggested that we keep the * word 
fetishism for that animism which regards the nature- 
filling spirits as inseparably joined to material objects, 
spiritualism doing duty for that higher kind of animism 
which assumes spirits to have a free and/ independent 
existence. 4 But it is a fatal objection to this last that 
spiritualism in English and the corresponding term m 
German (spiritismus) and other modern languages, has 
a definite meaning of a different sort, so thai to make it 
represent also Tylor's later meaning of animism would 
be to make confusion worse confo'unded. 

In this treatise I employ the term in the higher sense 
which it bears in Tylor's " Primitive Culture," though 
the other and lower kind is unquestionably more 
elementary and earlier in time. 

Tiele mentions a stage in human culture which he 
alleges to be prior to animism in either of its meanings : 
this he calls Polyzo'ismus.* At this point man sees in 

1 " Literature," March 5, 1898, p, 396 . 

* Mine is the third edition, 189 1, * Vol. i. p. 42s ft. 

Tieie, p. 6 ft. • p. 8. 



INTRODUCTION 1 1 

the world, not living beings, still less souls or spirits, but 
simply natural powiers or forces. It may .be said in 
answer to this, that the first power or force which man 
learns to know is that of his own personality. It is later 
and not earlier than he takes in the notion of natural or 
of any objective force. Besides, as Tiele admits, 1 there is 
no historical basis for his hypothesis, though he holds that 
it was most probably man's earliest and simplest attempt 
to interpret the universe in which he finds himself.* 

The proof of animism lies in its prevalence among 
existing savage races, who may be considered as occupying 
that level of culture at which the most civilized race 
once was, and in the survivals among civilized nations 
which admit of no other explanation, e.g. magic and its 
allied arts, which held their ground among the ancient 
civilizations of Egypt, Babylonia, Greece and Rome, and 
of which there are traces amdng all the great nations oi 
to-day, As to animism as implied in the early beliefs 
and practices of the Hebrews, see Stade i. 443 f. and 503 f. 
It is hardly needful to say that " Animism " has a different 
sense in the philosophy of Pythagoras (fl. B.C. 540-500 
founder of the Italian school of philosophy) and in that 
of Plato, where it denotes the force immaterial but 
inseparable from matter (anima mundi) which gives the 
latter form and. movement. Stahl, the great German 
chemist ( # i66o: ti734), used the term to describe his 
theory, that all diseases have their, cause in a wrong 
state of the soul ; their removal is therefore to be sought 
and secured by restoring the soul to its normal condition. 

Men must at an early stage .of development have 
reached the level of thought implied in the high animism. 

\ Loc cit, j?J3e la Saussaye, p. 12. 



13 MAGIC, DIVINATION, ANt> DEMONOLOGY 

The soul is believed in dreams to forsake the body and 
to wander where the dreamer thinks he is. This would 
very naturally, Dr. Tylor considers, suggest the idea 
that soul and body can exist apart. Moreover, in these 
dreams, when the soul is supposed to be in places far 
removed from the body, other persons are seen as well 
as animals and inanimate objects in situations wholly 
different from those in which they are seen in waking 
moments, and in which persons not asleep at the time 
know them to be. 

This mental double of human beings, of animals and of 
things, has been called the l< apparitional soul." ! The 

14 apparitional soul " can be but temporarily separated as 
long as the individual is alive. Death gives it perfect 
freedom : it is under no further necessity of returning to 
its prison house. We find survivals of this belief in 
comparatively recent times. 

In India, within the memory of many living men, it was* 
the custom to bury the widow along with her deceased 
husband, so that her spirit might be reunited with his. 

The warrior's horse was killed and interred with the 
body of its late master. This was done officially at 
Trfevres so late as 1 781, though then and long before no 
one understood the original import of the practice. At 
present we do not keep up this custom, but even in our 
time the warrior's horse with its trappings is led to the 
grave, though it is not killed as formerly. 

In course of time the doctrine of souls would, as Tylor 
points out, give rise to that of independent spirits, which 
had never been confined to bodies, and which were 
thus freer to move and to act. 

1 Tylor, i. 428. 



INTRODUCTION 1 3 

It could not be long before these independent spirits, 
with which the world was peopled, were made, like men, 
to have not merely varying moods, some good, some 
bad, but permanent characters/ intellectual, ethical, etc. 
Demonology would take its rise at this point, and also 
angelology, if we may use this word for the belief in 
good spirits, a sense which the word generally carries 
with it in Christian Theology. 

The superiority of spirit to matter must have been 
almost an intuition to early man. It is true that, in 
some respects, mind is the slave of body, and that it 
is made to suffer by contact not only with its own body, 
but also with objects around and outside, such as fire, 
water, air, etc. Yet, however hampered man's spirit 
is by its material environment, it is conscious, as matter 
is not; it uses matter to realize its own ends. Matter 
cannot sit down and form plans, using spirit as a means 
of carrying them out. This living, conscious, scheming, 
matter-controlling spirit could not but be conceived of 
as standing — shall I say? — -head and shoulders above 
mere things. 

Spirits that had no connection with body, that had 
always enjoyed this immunity, would naturally be 
thought of as higher than mere souk. 

These again would be soon put into ranks according 
to their capacity and moral worth. 2 To the highest and 
best man would be sure to turn in the thousand and one 
emergencies which crowd his earthly life. Knowledge 
which no faculties of his could fathom, but which yet he 
craved for and needed : power to overcome the evil 
spirits that caused loss, disease, and death — these were 

1 See supra* p. 7 a Su/trc, p. 7. 



14 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOtOGY 

not within his own grasp. Could this longed-for know- 
ledge, this lacking but necessary power, be supplied by 
the higher spirits ? 

The earliest crude endeavours to persuade these spirits 
to grant the knowledge and power wished for and ; 
wanted, belong to Magic in its primitive wide extent. 
(See the definition and explanation of rnagic.) 

The deification of the most capable and honoured of 
these spiritual beings would follow 1 as a natural result of 
the growing awe and expectation \vith which they were 
regarded. 

This is not the place to" either affirm or deny the 
existence and diffusion of a primitive revelation front 
God to man. 1 The present inquiry aims at tracing the 
natural growth of human thought as it seems to have 
unfolded itself, judging by what we know of the human 
mind, and of the history and present condition of back- 
ward peoples. 1 v 

It will be seen that we are now'upon the threshold of 
religion, if, indeed, we have not crossed it. 

The following are the stages through which, according 

1 I wish in this note to guard myself against being misunderstood on 
two points. I am far from thinking that the genesis of man's know* 
ledge of souls and of independent spirits is wholly explained by sleep, 
dreams, and the like. There is a prior question : how does man come 
to know what spirit is ? this he must know before he can say or think 
that spirit is separable from body, is independent of body. Even to 
say that man's own mental experience supplies him with the notion 
*' spirit," is to stop short of the full answer. A similar objection may 
be lodged against the evolution of the belief in God as supreme and 
absolute. But, unless the thought of God is involved in man's whole 
complex of thought, it could never be evolved out of it. The elaborate 
and interesting account given by Dr. Tylor in his epoch-making work 
of the steps by which man rises on his way to the conscious thought 
of the Infinitive and Absolute One, is, however, singularly confirmed 
by facts, and there is nothing in this reasoning that is contrary to 
the Christian idea of God or of Revelation. 



INTRODUCTION 1 5 

to Dr. Tylor and other eminent anthropologists, man 
passes in his progress to the perfect religion :— 

1. Fetishism. 

2. Totemism. 

3. Atavism. 

4. Polytheism. 

5. Henotheism. 

6. Monotheism. 

For other classifications of positive religion, including 
those of Hegel, 1 Hartmann, Tiele and Siebeck, see 
De La Saussaye i. p. 1 1 f. 

Herbert Spencer makes ancestor worship, which he 
takes to be a product of dreams and of the consequent 
belief in ghosts, to be the tap-root of all religion. Lyall * 
does not go so far, for he acknowledges that euhemerism 
11 is not a master key which will disclose the inside of all 
mythologies ; " 3 but he holds that for most of the facts, 
and especially as far as India is concerned, ancestor 
worship supplies an adequate explanation. 

This theory fails to distinguish between the form of wor- 
ship and the religious feeling itself. Ancestors are not, as 
such, deities. A deeper question is, how, in any cas£, did 
man come by the thought of God, so that ancestors or 
anything else could be reverenced and adored as divine ? 
Besides, we know for certain that many ancestors are not 
worshipped even where, as in China and India, ancestor 
worship prevails ; and it is equally certain that many 
deities never were men, and got to be worshipped on 
other grounds than because they were ancestors. 4 

1 For Hegel's, see more fully in his " Vorlesungen iiber die Philo- 
sophic der Religion," i. p. 258 ff. s p. 30 ff. 3 p. 34. 

4 See Andrew Land's answer to H. Spencer's theory in his new 
book, ^^The Makittg of Religion," p. 232^ 



l'6 magic, divination, and demonol06y" 

Magic without Animism or Superna?Ui£Alis&£ 

Dr. Tylor l notes a kind of magic — under which term 
he conforms to the primitive habit of including divina- 
tion — which makes no appeal to the spirit world, and 
which indeed makes no acknowledgment of the existence 
of spiritual beings (cf. Tiele's " Polyzoi'smus "). The 
magician on this theory professes to have discovered the 
secret laws of the universe. By strong efforts of will ; 
by traditional formulae or rites; in short, by all the 
instrumentalities of magic, he causes and cures disease,; 
inflicts misfortune or confers happiness, summons death 
or prevents his coming. 

With an equal ignoring of spirit or God, the astrologer 
infers the future of human beings from the planets under 
which they were born* The augur makes his forecast 
from the movements and cries of animals and birds. 
The haruspice draws his conclusions from the heart or 
liver of slaughtered animals. Others penetrate the 
future from observations of thrown dice, the twitching 
of fingers, the tingling of ears, etc., etc. 

Lyall 3 makes it to be the principal characteristic of 
magic that it v/orks independently of priests and deities 
through supposed secret knowledge of the processes or 
nature. By certain words or acts the magician— whom 
Lyall calls the witch — claims to be able to bring about 
particular results. Quite inconsistently Lyall holds 
divination to belong to the sphere of religion. Omens, 
he owns, are signs supposed to be given by the gods or 
by God for the guidance of men. 3 

But surely these writers have gone wrong at this 

1 Enovc Brit., art. Magic, cf. Prim. Cu\t. } i. ua f. 
% p. 76 ff. »p. 91. 



.INTRODUCTION 1 7 

point, for all the methods adopted in magic and in 
divination proceed upon the assumption that there am 
spiritual beings who manage the world, upon regular 
principles, and. who, upon certain conditions, deign to, 
interfere in behalf of man. It is true that, in many 
instances, the consciousness of the important part played-: 
by supernatural agency is not very vivid, but it is never 
absent, and indeed the practices referred to have no 
meaning without such, consciousness. 

Sympathetic Magic* 

What has been called " sympathetic magic, ,Ti nSas 
always existed and it exists at the present time. This 
depends for its success largely upon the association of 
ideas. Its underlying assumption is that to produce any 
result you have but to imitate it. To burn or otherwise 
injure anything belonging to a person is to affect its 
owner in a similar way. To burn hair Is to cause him 
to burn to whom it originally belonged. To destroy a 
portrait is to ruin the individual. The lover thought he 
softened and won the heart of his adored one by 
chewing and softening a piece of wood. This last is to 
be seen among the Zulus at the present day. 

But even this could not, at the start, be anything 
other than a symbolic prayer to the spirit or spirits 
having authority in these matters. In so far as no spirit 
is thought of, it is a mere survival, and not magic at all, 
though Tylor, 2 Lyall, 8 Frazer, 4 Jevons, 6 and many others 
give it that name and character. I have no hesitation 
in saying that there has never been, and there is not at 

1 Jevons, p. 28 ft. * i. 116 f. * p. 75 flf. * i. t>. 9 £ 

5 p. 28 f. fc 



1 8 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

the present time any magic, any divination, which has 
not involved and grown out of the conviction that 
spirits more powerful and more knowing than man, exist 
and can be reached by man if he uses the proper means. 
That so eminent a writer as Dr. Tylor misses his way 
in this matter is due to the fact that he is too exclu- 
sively an observer of facts, and too little the philosopher. 
At any rate, the predominance of man's intellectual con- 
ception of things has never taken proper hold or 
Dr. Tylor. Lyall, Frazer, and Jevons are in this, as in 
much else, but followers of Tylor, though all are original 
thinkers/ 

Magic and Rfxigion. 

It is difficult and, probably, impossible to draw a hard 
and fast line between these two. In most, if not in all 
positive religions there are traces or survivals of magic. 
In the more advanced development of magic we have the 
beginnings of religion. 

Polytheism is the natural outgrowth of animism. The 
gods of polytheism are the highest and noblest spirits, 
and polytheism is certainly a religion. Among mono* 
theistic peoples, nay among Christians, magical charms, 
amulets, etc., are exceedingly common. Note the Jewish 
phylacteries, mezuzas and tsitzith, and also the incan- 
tations and charms addressed to the Holy Trinity and de- 
pending for their effects upon the use of the Triune names* 

A moot question is this : Is magic prior to and a 
stepping-stone to religion ? Or, is it a step backward 
from religion ; a corruption of religion ; a belief, a 
practice involving a previous knowledge of religion, but 
a forsaking of it, or, at any rate, a rejection of religion in 
favour of magic ? 



INTRODUCTION 1^ 

This last opinion — that magic is a departure from 
religion in the strictest sense — is the old view, and among 
theologians it still holds the field. It is advocated by 
Lange, 1 Kleinert, 2 Lenormant, 3 Scholz* Jevons, 6 and 
Lang* There is no denying the fact that this view 
rests upon the assumption universally held by the 5 
churches until a few decades back, that all religions 
are due to a primitive revelation, the false ones 
being corruptions of the true. A recent and learned 
advocate, the well-known Chinese scholar, Dr. Edkins, 1 
has, within the last two or three years, written a 
book to support the old opinion. The title of the book' 
is, "The Early Spread of Religious Ideas, especially in' 
the Far East." (London, 1893.) The main argument 
pursued by the author is, that in matters of morals and 
religion the tendency of nations is, when left to them- 
"""selves, to deteriorate. He instances the Hindoos who, in 
the pre-Rigveda and Rigveda stage, were monotheistic, 
and the Chinese who lived on a higher level of civiliza- 
tion and religion in the time of Confucius.- But his 
treatment involves an enormous number of unproved 
and unprovable assumptions, such as, that no other 
causes have been at work ; that we know all the facts 
connected with the case, etc. Most students of 
anthropology and archaeology, and of the science and the 
history of religion, and a growing number of theologians, 
indeed a' majority of those most competent to judge, 
contend that at the first religion was in a very nebulous 
state : that, as was the case in intellectual and moral 

i* Herzog, Zauberei. 8 Riehm, Zauberei. 3 " Chald. Magic," p. 70 ff. 

4 p. I, ct passim. Scholz says that magic and idol worship are 
closely connected, and that both are departures from an original reve- ! 
Jation of the true religion. 

* p 36* • "The Making of Religion," p. 290. 



20 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGV 

conceptions, so likewise in religion, man's ideas advanced 
from lower to higher, jand from higher to ever higher 
developments. 

Religion involves purer and more advanced thought 
than magic. For this reason it may be expected to follow 
and grow out of it. History and observation of anthropo- 
logical and archaeological facts, survivals in folk-lore and 
in primitive customs — these and yet other considerations 
support the new view as against the old. 

Jevons devotes a considerable portion of his able and 
interesting work to the defence and exposition of his 
position. 

He appears to think that a belief in God, however 
meagre and unsatisfactory, is one element that is never 
absent from magic. This cannot be got until the 
religious stage has been reached. Therefore religion 
must precede magic. 1 Now we join issue with the author 
on this cardinal point. 

Though believers in magic believe of necessity in spirits 
and in their superior power and skill, there is no 
necessity arising out of their magic, that they should 
contemplate these spirits as divine. Magic does not 
involve more than the superiority indicated above : it 
has existed and now exists in cases where the category of 
deity has never been attained unto.. 

It is contended further, that religion has never been 
known, as a matter of fact, to arise out of magic ; but that 
on the contrary, the decay of religion has been generally 
accompanied by the adoption of magic. The Old 
Testament is referred to as indicating the purity of the 

1 Cf. with this Sir Max Miiller's contention (Hibbert Lectures) 
that fetishism is a declension from a higher religion, since it involves 
ihe idea of deity, of tbe infinite. 



INTRODUCTION 21 

early religion of Israel. The implicit, and even explicit 
magical teaching, in the Talmud, 1 the mysticism and 
theosophy, the theurgic doctrines of the Jewish Qabbalah 
show us Israeli religion in its later and corrupter state. 

Christianity judged by its earliest literature — New 
Testament, etc., gives no countenance to the vagaries of 
magic and divination. But some of the most eminent 
Qabbalists were likeReuchlin (t 1592), Christian scholars, 
who saw in the curious and ingenious mysteries of the 
— Qabbalah the Trinity, the Atonement, and all the central 
\verities of the Christian faith. In the Middle Ages witches 
were condemned and executed, not because they had no 
power over nature and men, but because they had such 
power and exercised it to the detriment of others. 

Martin Luther spok§ thus of the watches who in his 
day spoiled a farmer's butter and eggs, " I would have 
no pity on those witches, I would burn them all." 

In Scotland and in Germany, until comparatively recent 
times, Roman Catholic priests were believed to have 
magical power. In cases of emergency it was not an 
uncommoh thing for Protestant clergymen in these 
countries to consult their Roman Catholic rivals. (See 
Tylor s " Primitive Culture, 8 * 3 i. 1 1 5 ff.} 

The same feature appears to characterize Islam. There 
is not a word in the Quran which countenances magic. 
On the contrary, see Surah it 96, fJ*$ ^*W <^*^^U£ji 
"The Satans taught men magic." Similarly in the 
Traditions — Mishk&t — (Book xxi., ch. 3, part i.) magic 
is censured. Yet the recorded sayings of Mohammed 
permit practices that are closely akin to magic. See 
examples in Hughes' u Dictionary of Islam," p. 303b. f. 

-See infra t p. 61 ff. 



22 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

Nevertheless it is true that in subsequent times Islam 
became more and more addicted to magic. Many are 
the zealous Moslems who have devoted themselves to 
the secrfet arts. 

In regard to divination the course seems to have been 
different. Mohammed did not claim the power of di- 
vining, yet he often availed himself of, the services of the 
Qahin <$*^ f v/ho did claim to possess and exercise this 
power. After the prophet's death many arose who pre- 
tended to be Allah's authorized exponents of the faith, 
who said they were in this the successors of Mohammed. 
Among these were Maslama, Tulhaiha, al-Alwa. But it 
was soon pointed out that the Quran and the traditions 
(surma) supplied all the guidance that was needed. 1 
""""It is impossible not to be reminded by this explanation 
of the uselessness of magic, of the parallel argument 
adduced in Deut. xviii. 10 f. Yet the're is a difference. 
The Israelites are. to keep far away from magic and 
divination, for God now speaks to them in the prophets. 
Mohammed himself was the prophet : his words, his 
instruction, were preserved in the Quran and the Sunnat, 
«nd nothing further was wanted. 

There are very few instances, and none that are con- 
clusive, to show that magic denotes a devolution from 
the religious stage. 

There are many peoples in all the great continents 
who very largely practise magic, but who have never 
risen ^bove the lowest fetishism, which indeed may be 
called a kind of religion, though it is not the kind 01 
religion which Jevons and his school have in mind. 

On the other hand, among the advocates of the view 

1 Wellh. Reste, 137 Uj 



INTRODUCTION 23 

that religion is evolved out of magic stand the names of 
Tiele and of t|ie celebrated German philosopher, Hegel 
(11831). In his " Vorlesungen uber die Philosophic 
der Religion," Hegel deals with the subject under 
consideration. To understand his position it is needful 
to have a clear view of his theory of knowledge. 

Man is first of all conscious of what is called the 
objective, though it is an objective in thought, and not 
in any world which lies outside of thought. In this 
objective consciousness there is involved the knowledge 
of himself as the subject who is thus conscious, and of 
the absolute unity through which subject and object are 
brought into relation.\ In the beginning it is the objects 
around man that strike^him, and which indeed constitute 
for him the only realities. He is dependent upon them, 
and has to make with them the best terms he can. 
Hegel called religion which can under these condi- 
tions exist, '* immediate natural religion 1 " : immediate, 
because the things seen are treated as the whole of what 
exist, just as the dreamer takes what he bees in his dream 
to be the only realities. This kind of religion is to be 
compared with fetishism, in which the object is the sole 
thing worshipped, or at least in which subjec^and object 
jire one. This is the lowest form of magic.\ Strictly 
speaking, man can, according to Hegel, be truly religious 
jthen only when he has risen to the consciousness of 
himself as distinct from the not self, and when he feels 
himself a free man, and as such, master over nature, or, 
at any rate, able to--* control the powers of nature by 
exercising the right means. 2 First of all, the magician 
seeks to influence -nature, or rather the spirits of nature 

^T 263. M. 281. 



24 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

directly, by word of mouth, or by gesture. At higher 
levels of civilization means are employed, such as 
sacrifices, etc., for the beings dealt with have now to be 
appeased, persuaded, etc., by gifts and the like. 

The full religious experience, however, is enjoyed ority 
after man has risen to the full conception of God as 
absolute and perfect. But this higher knowledge is 
involved, and, to some extent, actually realized in the 
lowest objective mental acts. That is to say, magic in 
its crudest form involves religion in its purest, and is, in 
fact, on the way to being the perfect religion. 

Dr. Tylor * writes thus : — 

u Magic belongs in its main principles to the lowest 
stages of civilization, and the lower races, who have not 
partaken largely of the education of the world, still 
maintain it in vigour." 

In his Encyclopaedia article he says that in low 
stages of civilization magic and religion are hardly 
distinguished : the sorcerer 2 is also the priest. This 
view was long ago advocated by Meiners. s 

The true state of the case appears to be this, — 

i. Magic, as the non-ethical attempt of man to 
influence the supernatural, may be said to accompany all 
grades of religion ; Christianity itself, in all its actual 
forms, is more or less influenced by it. 

2. Since magic is a low form of religion, it may either 
precede the full realization of religion, or it may follow 
upon this last, and so be, in that case, a degeneration, a 
going back from religion. I do not think that Hegel 

1 Prim. Cult., i. 112. 

2 By which he means the man who is magician and diviner ; but 
the sorcerer is, strictly speaking, a diviner. 

• "Geschichte aller Religionen," book xii. M. was a professor at 
Gottingen ; t 1810. 



INTRODUCTION $ % 

would have had anything to say against this presentation, 
since his development is not necessarily always forward : 
it indicates rather different degrees of perfection which 
with continuous progress, will be reached : it is the 
progress of the tide rather than that of the dawn : in 
the main, however, there is literally progress. 

Magic and Science. 

It has been often pointed out that magic is science in 
the making, just as it has been said to be religion in the 
making. Thus Jevons 1 shows that savage logic goes 
upon all fours with the logic of, say, John Stuart Mill 
The same methods are followed — agreement, difference, 
concomitant variations, etc., in coming to conclusions 
regarding the future. Sympathetic magic he holds to bo 
simply a case of the same mode of reasoning. But 
Jevons himself admits that the belief in the uniformity of 
nature which lies at the bottom of primitive man's logic, 
rests upon the previous belief that there are in all nature 
indwelling spirits. The logic is a corollary deduced 
from the spirit-belier. 

Magic has been in a special manner compared with 
early medical science. Incantations, plants, and amulets 
have a scientific aspect. Incantations have an efficacy in 
soothing nervous patients. 'Plants and other physical 
agents have, in certain cases, definite remedial effects, 
and they are thus, described as having the power of 
casting out devils, just because they heal the diseases 
believed to be due to demon possession. In course o 
time incantations and the use of material things 
(either as solids, liquids or odours), came to be regulated 

l Cb. iv, 



2& MAGIC, DIVINATION, AftD DEMOttOtOfcY 

on sanitary principles ; but it must not be forgotten that 
at first these things had a religious significance, and that 
alone. 

We have an analogous process of religious usage 
passing into science in the distinction found in the Old 
Testament and in other religions, between clean and 
unclean food. J. D. Michaelis 1 and others hold that 
this distinction originated in health considerations. In 
a paper on " The Health Laws of the Bible," read at the 
1 89 1 Oriental Congress, 2 Mr. Marcus N. Adler, M.A., 
F.S.S., strongly supports this view ; nor does he seem to 
know that any other explanation has been ever put 
forward. 

The study of comparative religion and especially that 
of the religion of the Semites, has placed the matter 
beyond the possibility of doubt that clean and unclean, 
when applied to food, were in the first instance, religious 
conceptions, as is maintained by Dillmann, 3 Stade, 4 
Wellhausen, W. Robertson Smith, 5 F. B. Jevons, 6 
and most recent scholars. Whatever among primitive 
peoples had to do with the gods, if, for example, they were 
totem plants or animals, were as such, taboo or prohibited 
as food. It is almost amusing to think that unclean and 
holy have a common origin, and at the start denote the 
same thing, viz. that which was taboo. Thus W. R. 
Smith says 7 : " Holy and unclean things have this in 
common, that in both cases certain restrictions lie on 
men's use of and contact with them, and that the breach 
of these restrictions involves supernatural dangers." 

1 Vol. iii. p. 219 ff. 

3 Published in the Asiatic Quarterly for January, 1892. 

* On Leviticus xi. 4 i. p. 4$ ff- 
1 Rel. Sem., 143 ff., and 427 ff. 

• Rel. Sem., p. 62, ct passim,/ 7 Rel. Stm., p. 427. 



INTRODUCTION 27 

Yet what originated in religious superstition, is often 
rationalized, so that further regulations proceed upon 
scientific principles ; so much so that the religious 
origin is forgotten and even denied. Religion in the 
-early form of magic or in some higher form, has given 
rise to nearly ail our science, and to very much of our 
art. Even poetry, music, sculpture, and pastimes like 
dancings received their first suggestion and earliest 
impetus in the religious sphere. Only in the modified 
sense, demanded by what has now been said, is it true 
that magic is elementary science, or science in the 
process of being borp.' 



Magic and "Divination. 

Among the least advanced races, and in the lowest 
levels at which civilized nations have been, no dis- 
tinction is drawn between magic and divination. 
W. Robertson Smith 1 says that it was in the decadence 
of the old religions that these two tended to run into 
one another. He instances the Greeks as a nation which 
legalized divination and yet condemned magic as a black 
art. He might have added the Egyptians and Romans 
,as other examples. 

But both history and philosophy are against him. 
Differentiation is the mark of a late and not of an early 
time. Both magic and divination come under the 
category of intercourse with the spirit world ; whether 
the aim be to acquire secret knowledge or superhuman 
power, the proceeding was at first similar. 

To obtain a message from the other world, such as a 

? Journal of Phil., xiv. p. 19 1 ♦ 



2S MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOOV 

prophetic dream, the ancient Egyptians took a black cat 
which had been killed^ and wrote on a tablet with a 
solution of myrrh, a certain incantation in which the 
name of the god to be invoked was mentioned. This 
tablet was to be placed in the cat's mouth, The dream 
came, with the desired intimation, (See Wiedemann's 
"Religion of the Ancient Egyptians," Eng. Ed. 1897, 
p. 267 f.) Now, here the methods of magic are employed 
to gain the ends of divination. Both are, in fact, united 
in the same process. In the Biblical ltfni. I am inclined 
to see an appeal to the serpent god, the appeal being 
made by magical means. (But see under this vyord.) 

In Torreblanca's book " De Magia," the writer divides 
his subject thus :•— 

I. De Magia Divinatrice. 

II. D$ Magia Operatrice. 

So careful a writer as Dr. Tylor uses language which 
makes magic include divination* 1 

It will be presently pointed out that in the Old Testa- 
ment magic and divination often go together under one 
designation, e.g. DDp etc. 

Nevertheless, there are obvious advantages in con- 
sidering the two apart as Robertson Smith does. But 
it should constantly be kept in mind that at first the 
two were not differentiated, and that in all ages, in- 
cluding our own, magic is made to do duty for both* 

Magic and Demonology. 

At the first, as at present among savage peoples, the 
spirits communicated with were not sharply distinguished 

1 See Prim. Cult., i. 134. 



INTRODUCTION 29 

as gcod and bad. Since magic in the narrow sense tends 
more and more to have the character of constraint, it 
being sought by means of drugs, by forms of words, etc., 
to force the evil spirit by means of the good one ; there- 
fore more and more magic got to be associated with evil 
spirits. 

I have already alluded 1 to the distinction made in 
later times between so-called "Black" and "White" 
magic. The distinction was not originally made, because 
good and evil spirits were not separated in thought, 
though the separation, and, indeed, the opposition of the 
two classes, must soon have occurred to reflecting human 
beings. 

It will be seen in* the course of this essay how im- 
possible it is to keep magic and demogology apart. The 
methods adopted to ward off demons or to prevent 
their evil influences are magical, and this is the kind of 
magic of which we have far more traces than of any 
other among the Hebrews and among all nations ancient 
and modern. 

1 See supra , p. 3 . 



I. MAGIC. 

Magic in the Old Testament. 

Traces and Survivals. 

Of the early history of the Hebrews we have little 
knowledge that is certain. The most ancient portions 
of the Old Testament belong, at least as literature, to the 
period between B.C. 800 and B.C. 900, Neither J nor 
E can be pushed further back than the last date, and 
Dillmann even does not claim for E (his B) a remoter 
origin than B.C. 850. J (his C) is a century younger. 

Wellhausen and his school exactly reverse these dates f 
making J the older. The traditions contained in these 
documents may be very much older than the documents 
themselves. That they must be older goes without 
saying, but how much it is impossible to say. 

Wellhausen begins his w Geschichte des Israels " with 
Moses. Before him we are in the realm of uncertainty. 
Even as to what Moses did and said we are much in the 
dark, though that he was humanly the founder of the 
nation, as such, and of its religion, there is no doubt; 
Wellhausen himself admitting this much. 

But the religion of Israel for a long time after the 
kingdom was founded was polytheistic in this sense, that 



MAGIC St 

the nation and its leaders believed as much in the 
existence of other gods as in that of Yahwe. But for 
them there was but one God ; Him alone they were to 
worship, anS in return He would protect them against 
their foes and against the deities whom their foes rightly 
worshipped. • Stade l calls this belief of Israel " mono- 
latry," as distinct from monotheism ; by Ffieiderer it is 
called M henotheism," a term so variously understood 
that De La S&ussaye rightly advises its being given up. 

How the belief in Yahwe's absoluteness, uniqueness 
and universal dominion arose, is admirably sketched by 
Riehmi in his " Messianische Weissagungen M (Messianic 
Prophecy). 2 

If, of course, the Genesis account, or rather accounts 5 
of Creation be accepted, as they used to be, and as in 
some quarters they still are, as the very work 01 Moses 5 , 
then Israel's religion was from its historical beginning 
monotheistic. Nearly all Old Testament scholars, how- 
ever, now agree that - both accounts are of much more 
recent origin, the principal one not being older than 
the Exile, nor perhaps so old. This last, the P narrative, 
is probably based on the Babylonian cosmologies, with 
which Israel during the Exile must have become familiar, 
though it is edited and adapted to the belief in one God, 
the Creator and Preserver of all. 

What were the beliefs- and practices of Israel before 
the historical period, which Wellhausen makes to start 
with Moses, it is hard, fcay impossible, positively to say. 

But this is noteworthy that from the very earliest 
period at which we find the Hebrews, their attitude 

1 i. 429. * p. 92 et passim (English, 2nd edition)* 

s Gen. U— it 4a (P), and ii. 4b— 23 (J). 



32 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

towards magic and related practices was almost wholly 
negative and hostile. 

The late Rabbi David Joel ( fl Abergtaube M etc.) 
goes much further than facts justify him in making 
the Old Testament Hebrews wholly innocent of the 
black art. He is not able to make so complete a 
vindication of the Tannaim, or authors of the Mishna, 
but he holds that on the whole they stand in the same 
hostile position towards magic that the Bible writers do. 
He is able to maintain his position only by forcing 
meanings upon the Old Testament and upon the Mishna, 
which the texts will not allow. 

He connects magic with a belief in demons, and says 
it implies a seeking unto them instead of unto Yahwe. 
He affirms that there is no belief in devils in the books 
of Moses. ^JtNt# (Azazel, Lev. xvi. 8, 10, 26) is no 
demon, but a steep mountain as the Talmud said before. 
DHltf (shedim), in Deut. xxxii. 17, are not demons, but 
simply lords or gods. 

The Teraphim of Rachel show that she had not quite 
cut herself off from heathenism ; but they have no 
countenance in Genesis. 

When Balaam was made to bless instead of cursing 
Israel as he intended, there is no acknowledgment of his 
having any real power to influence the people either by 
blessing or cursing. God wrought a miracle and com- 
pelled Balaam to bless the very people he was sent to 
curse; and the purpose of this miracle was to show 
that, the pretensions of Balaam were null and void. 
Yet to an impartial reader the narrative in Num. xxii. — 
xxiv., implies on the part of the writer a recognition of 
the claims put forth by Balaam, just as Exodus vii. 8 ff. 



MAGIC 33 

contain a tacit acknowledgment that the magicians of 
Egypt had supernormal or supernatural power — they as 
truly as Moses, though not to the same extent. Compare 
with both these the attitude of Christian people up to 
a comparatively recent time. 1 

Goldziher * has shown that among the ancient Arabs 
as among the Jews, the magical word of blessing and of 
cursing played a prominent part. In war, the poet, by 
cursing the enemy rendered service not second to the 
warrior himself* The word uttered was, in fact, a most 
potent "fetish," as Gokteiher has it. 5 The Jews of 
Medina brought into their synagogues images of their 
archfoe Malik b. al-Aglam ; and at these they hurled 
curses every time they came together. In the light of 
what Goldziher says, there is no denying the magics! 
character assumed by Balaam, and it is equally clear that 
the reality of the power claimed is acknowledged in the 
Bible narrative. Else why seek to transfer his services 
to the cause of Israel ? 

I may add that the Balaam incident occurs in the 
oldest document of the Hexateuch, that known as the 
Jehovistic and designated by J E. The Exodus account 
of the plagues and the magicians is taken from P, and 
is therefore much later. 

Besides what Goldziher has written, Brinton* Hille* 
brandt 5 and others, have also shown the wide prevalence 
of the belief in the potency of the uttered word. Cf. 
11 Curse ye me Meroz," of Deborah's song in Judges v. 
23 (date, time of the Judges). 

The evil eye, Joel will have it, has nothing in it that 
is mystical or magical ; it means in the Bible, the 

1 See supra, p. 23. * p. 26 ff. 8 p. 28. 

« p. 88 ff. 6 u p. 169 f?. 



\ 



34 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

Mishna, etc., simply envy. He does not seem to have 
followed the history of this superstition. 1 

In a similar manner he (Dr. J.) makes strenuous 
efforts to clear the authorities of the Mishna from com- 
plicity in the black art. 

It is nevertheless true that the attitude of the Old 
Testament is, on the whole, unfavourable to magic. 
This is very remarkable when it is remembered how 
given to this superstition the surrounding nations were, f 

There are not wanting, however, instances of practices 
magical in origin, and having no other real significance, 
though in later times other explanations have been 
supplied. I must refer for some of these to my discus- 
sion of Demonology in the Old Testament, page 95 ff. 
But here I want to refer to one or two special cases. 

Gen. xxx. 14 (J). Leah wanted more children. Her 
s6n Reuben goes into the field and brings her Q^nn 
(dudaim) or il mandrakes," fruit growing on plants of the 
Belladonna kind, having white and red strong-smelling; 
flowers. Cf. Cant. vii. 14. This plant, called by 
naturalists Mafidragora vernalis y though there is also a 
Mdndragora au(u7nndlis % is common enough in Palestine, 
and especially in Galilee. Its fruit was supposed to have* 
the power of awakening sexual feeling and of promoting 
•fertility. Among the Arabs the e^o (yabruh) was . 
believed to have the same effect, and is almost certainly 
the same fruit. W. R. Smith (" Rel. Sem.," p. 423) says 
the mandrake, known as Baaras among the Northern 
Semites, was supposed by the Arabs and by the ancient 
Germans to be inhabited by a spirit which gave it 
extraordinary powers. Many Arab stories told of the' 

* Sec "The Evil," by Ellworthy. 



MAGIC 35 

Yabruh confirm this. The Hebrew word is undoubtedly 
derived from the root 1W (dud), which means u to love," 
•fPT (dod), beloved (friend). On DWTFT (dudaim) as love 
potions, see Tuch on this passage. 1 

Now, in this early part of the Old Testament (it belongs 
to J), we have effects ascribed to this fruit which coulcj 
not be supposed to follow from its natural properties : 
either it frustrated the work of the demon that caused 
sterility, or it had some peculiar influence upon the spirit 
of good. And not one syllable of disapproval is expressed 
by the Redactor who incorporated J into his work. 

I am not sure whether another incident recorded in 
the same chapter and belonging to the same source (J) is 
not to be reckoned in the category of magic, though it 
would be magic of the sympathetic 0£ symbolic kind. 
The peeled rods Which Jacob put in front of the sheep 
and goats as they 4 came to drink water, caused those 
that were pregnant to bring forth young that were 
spotted and striped. The natural explanation may be 
adequate, but it is probable that more than this was in 
the mind of the writer. 

There is a good deal of uncertainty as to the Tera- 
phihi which Raphel stole when she and Jacob left her 
father's house, Gen. xxxi. 19 ff. They were of human 
form (1 Sam. xix. 13), and were looked upon as gods 
(v. 30 and Judges xviii. 24), though their possession is 
regarded as illegitimate (Josiah put them away together 
with the wizards, etc., 2 Kings xxiii. 24 ; cf. Zech. x. 2, 
where they are associated with diviners). 

Among the Assyrians, images of gods were kept in 
the house because they were believed to have the power 

Cf. Lang's "Custom and Myth," p. 143 ff. 



36 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

of warding off evil spirits. A certain exorcist is said to 
have had statues of the gods Lugalgirra and Allamu put 
one on each side of the main entrance to his house, and 
in consequence he felt perfectly impregnable against all 
evil spirits. x (See Tallq. p. 22.) . 

It is probable that in Genesis and elsewhere we should 
construe the word as plural of excellence or of majesty, 
answering to OTi!?i*, DWtf, D*ttf*Tj? (see Gesenius " 
§134, g). The root is generally believed to be the same 
as the Arabic «-*/ (tarifa), which means to live a life of 
ease and plenty. The Teraphim was kept in the house 
as a guarantee of good luck. Though originally perhaps 
an idol, it was afterwards and in Biblical times almost 
exclusively a kind of charm. 1 That it had a magical 
import is suggested by Zech. x. 2, where Teraphim, 
diviners, and i{ tellers of false dreams " are put in the 
same category. The use of Teraphim was not always 
condemned, as is proved by this Genesis narrative, for 
nothing is said by Jacob or the writer (J ), or the Redactor 
that is disparaging : and by Hos. iii. 4, where it is said that 
on account of her disloyalty Israel shall be for many days 
11 without king, without prince and without sacrifice, and 
without pillar and without ephod or teraphim." 

Baudissen ("Studien," etc., i. 57) sees in the worship 
of Teraphim a proof of the original polytheism of the 
Israelites ; these idols — with him the word is strictly 
plural — holding a lower place in the esteem of the people 
than Jehovah, similar to that assigned saints in Catholic 
popular belief ( u katholischen Volksglauben "). 

In the prohibition, i{ Thou shalt not seethe a kid in 
its mother's milk v (Ex. xxiii. 19, xxxiw 26; Deut. xiv. 21), 

1 Cf. Lares and Penates, the household gods of the Romans. 



MAGIC? 37 

Maimonides, Abarbarnel, Nic. de Lyra, and an anonymous 
Qaraite commentator, followed by Spencer, and other 
more modern scholars have seen an allusion to a magical 
broth which was sprinkled over trees, plants, and fields, 
in order to make them fertile the following year. Such 
a custom prevailed among the Zabians and other Eastern 
peoples. (See Spencer, i. 335 ff.) It is more likely that we 
have in the words a reference to an ancient form of 
sacrifice, similar to the sacrifice of blood (Smith, W. R., 
Rel. Sem. p. 203, note 8). 

In Isaiah iii. 2, among the stays and supports which 
would be taken from the nation in consequence of their 
sin are named; the mighty man TQ3, the man of war 
nyribn WXy the judge ESMtf, the prophet NOl, the 
diviner DDV>, and the elder p?. The connection in 
which the word occurs would seem to imply that DDp 
was a permitted and irreproachable functionary. He is 
mentioned among the elite of the land. 

Exodus vii. and viii. is in this connection interesting, 
for in these chapters the miracle-working power of the 
magicians D^QiTjn is acknowledged in the narrative. 
Aaron's rod becomes a serpent, so do the rods of the 
magicians. Aaron's power is indicated as greater than 
theirs, for his rod swallows theirs (vii. 11 f.). Aaron 
turned the waters into blood, so did his rivals (vii. 22). 
He caused the land to abound with frogs, so did they 
(viii. 3). The plague of stinging flies 1 which Aaron 
caused to come, the magicians failed to produce (viii. 18). 
It is noteworthy that all these acknowledgments of the 
power of the magicians are due to P ; this is more 
striking, as much of the^ Connected narrative is due to 

1 003 (kiimirn) : A.V. and R.V., ♦Mice." 



\ 



38 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

older sources (J, JE, R). We may have in this tacit 
acknowledgment of the reality of magic, an effect of the 
residence in Babylon. As, however, the same word 
(iD^Dinn, khartummim) occurs in a much older source^ 
(E, Gen. xli. 8, 24) to describe the magicians whom 
Pharaoh called to interpret his dream, it is most likely 
that the writer (P) borrowed from E. He would be the 
more easily led thereto, as the events in both cases 
transpired in Egypt. 

One great reason which induced the Hebrews tOs 
condemn magic and the like was that it was so closely; 
connected with idolatry* In 2 Kings ix. 22 it seeniS; 
identified with it. 

To the Hebrews, deities worshipped by other peoples 
were evil spirits or demons with which magicians and 
diviners were supposed to traffic. To practise magic and 
divination or to support them meant to them — afleast 
to the pious orthodox among them — an acknowledgment 
of idols. It is significant of this that Hebrew names for 
heathen gods found in the Old Testament, 1 have been 
translated in many cases in the Septuagint by i{ demons." 2 
In a similar way the Jinns ? or demons of Islam were, in 
the u times of ignorance/' gods worshipped as such: 
e.g , z)f (Quzah). 3 The Romans also looked upon the 
gods of other nations as demons, and as hostile to them- 
selves and to the deities they worshipped. 4 

In Samuel vi. we have an example of what has been 
called symbolic magic. The Philistines, after conquering 
the Israelites at Aphek, take from the latter the Ark 
which they place in the temple of Dagon. The god fallj 

» See infra, p. 121. | Dr. Granger, p. 174^) 



magic 39 

to pieces in the presence of the Ark, and besides, the 
people are afflicted with tumours [A,V., emerods(= hemor- 
rhoids)] and the land covered with mice. They resolve 
to send back the Ark to the Israelites, but following the 
directions of their priests, they fill the Ark with golden 
images of the tumours and mice. By means of these last 
they expected to get rid of their tormentors. Some 
causal Connection was believed to exist between the 
golden images and the originals. They might, of course, 
have been regarded as offerings to God, made that He 
might be induced to stay the pests. In favour of this 
was th6 custom among heathen nations of hanging in 
temples, images of parts of the body which had been 
healed * &s indicating 'the gratitude of the persons restored 
to health. But the fact of the resemblance between 
the evil and the means usfcd to remove it supports the 
view that the images were thought in some way to haye 
the poWet 6f removing that which they were images of. 
Among the Dacotahs in North. America at the present 
•time, when anyone is ill, %n image of his disease~a boil 
or what not— is carved in wood. This little image is 
itheo placed in a bowl of water and shot at with a gun. 
The image of the disease being destroyed, the disease 
itself is expected to disappear." • 

The golden serpent erected by Moses so that those 
\vho had been bitten by the fiery serpents might, by 
looking at it r be healed 3 is a remnant of the same practice. 
By gazing at the golden image of the serpent, the bites 
of the live serpents were cured. It need not surprise 
Anyone who believes that, in this particular case, Divine 

1 See Classical references in Winer's R. Wb 3 . ii. 255. 
* Andrew Lang, •« Myth, Ritual, and Religion/' i. 98. 
? Num. 3wi. 6*9. 



40 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

power was really put fortfi, for how often does God 
accommodate both speech and action to the conceptions 
and habits of those whomHe deals with ! 

Biblical Terms. 

The most able, recent, and helpful treatment of the 
greater number of words or expressions employed in the 
Old Testament in connection with magic, divination, and 
demonology, is contained in the two articles written by the 
late Dr. W. R. Smith for the " Journal of Philology." 
Since he examines those only which occur in DeuL xviil 
10, ii, his treatment is not, of course, complete for the 
Old Testament ; and it does not pretend to touch the 
New Testament, and, as a matter of fact, it does not. 

There is another drawback in Dr. Smith's subtle and 
learned discussion. Following a hint dropped by Ewald * 
that the above verses contained a summary of the 

41 wor§t kinds of divination (and magic ?) current at the 
time of the author," and that the arrangement is 
intentional, he is too anxious to get out and establish 
certain meanings which put the words and phrases into 
a -definite relation to another. This will appear further 
on v 

Old Testament Terms. 

Some of the terms embrace the idea of divination as 
well as that of magic, which ought to create no surprise 
as the ideas are so closely connected. 

1 xiii. 273.288, xiv. 113-128. 

3 M Lehre der Bibel von Got*,'*!, 230. See translation of the passage 
at p. 214 of ** Revelation ; its Nature and Record," being translation, 
with some omissions, of vol. i. of Ewald's work. The translation is by 
my able predecessor, the late Principal Goadby, B.A., who passed 
suddenly away in 1889, to everyone's sorrow who knew him, just as 
bis fcest woik was about to be done. 



MAGIC 4I 

Two words appear to have had originally no exclusive 
reference to either divination or magic. One of these 
is 0*pan (khakamim ; Aram. D'D*3n ; LXX., <ro<£ot, 
aofao-ral) ; it denotes literally " wise men." In Ex. vii. 11 
they are named alongside of the D^SttfoQ (mekash-' 
shephim), or magicians, the latter word being used, I 
think, to explain the first ; the writer wishes to make it 
clear what kind of 4( wise men " he means, hence he adds 
_th^ specific term to the generic. 

In the next clause the word D^aa'Tf (khartummim) 
stands for the same individuals. This word I regard also 
as generic. 1 . 

Lenormant* thinks a special class of magicians is meant, 
viz. those who used magic to cure diseases ; but he is 
evidently led away in this notion by the Arabic word 
(****» (hakeem), which in the modern speech has th^ 
special meaning of physician, s * * J* (tabeeb) is, however, 
the commoner word. 

The second chapter of Daniel seems to supply a key to 
the meaning of the term. In verse i% we are told that 
Nebuchadnezzar the king gave orders that all the wise 
men were to be put to death, because they had failed to 
interpret his dream. Who were those that were com- 
manded to tell the king his dream ? They were (v. 2) 
the magicians D^O&'in (khartummim), a general term 
for the enchanters D*3#K (ashshaphim), the sorcerers 
D^BttDD (mekashshephim), and the Chaldeans D^fcO 
(kasdim). 

In v. 48 we read that God made Daniel to be head 
over all the wise men; i.e. clearly all spoken ©f in verse 2. 

I §ce infra, p. 42 1. * « Chald. Magic," p. 24. 



42 MA&IC, DfviNATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

D'^b'Tf (khartummim) is another word of general 
import. Of its etymology the opinion used to be, and 
it still generally prevails, that the word has as its basis 
tVlfl t (kheret), a chisel to cut with— as stone (Exod. 
xxxii* 4), a sharp metallic instrument to &rite with; then, 
as in Isaiah viii. I, the stylus with which one writes. 
Q^Q^in (khari.) would then mean th$ scribes, the learned 

class, a meaning closely connected with D^DSH (khakamim). 

Both Ewald and Dillmann contend for this derivation. 

We have in Assyriafi & noun khiritu, a place dug, a 
grave, ditch, canal ; but the t represents T\ not D ; and 
moreover it is a servile, not a radical, as 'the form from 
which it comes is Kharu or Khiru (fTT!). 

Hoffmann (Z. A. W;, iii. p. 89, f.), followed by Sigfried, 

makes $*» (khatmvfii) (nose) the root, the 'TT being .thus 
designated because they spoke in. a low nasal tone ; 
cf. Robertson Smith's derivation of p^yp (me'onen) from 
^ (ghanna), to emit a hoarse, nasal sound ; cf . also the 
Greek yorjTts (2 Tim. iii. 13), men who used a low, 
mournful voice, then magicians. 

If, however, we are to accept a Semitic origin for the 
word, the first derivation is more likely, as the root 
in that case actually exists in Hebrew. The termination 
6m (=s&m, cf. Stade, § 77a) is common in Hebrew : cf. 
tflB, Din}, DVT*. (See Stade, $ 295.) If the Arabic 
root be accepted, we have the T (resh) inserted instead of 
dag. forte, as is common in Aramaic (KD")^), Arabic 

» C i \ 

o~jr> Hebrew DD^3, and Ethiopia 

It is not at all improbable that E got the word from 
Egypt, and that we are to seek its origin in the Egyptian 
language. It occurs fir^t of all in Gen. xli. 8, 24., the 



MAGIC 43 

source being E. It then occurs in Exod. vii. 9, the 
source being P. Its third and only remaining occurrence 
is in Dan., a book written some time in the first half of 
the second century B.C. 

In Genesis it stands for dream interpreters, i.e. diviners. 
In Exodus it is used for those who wrought the same 
miracles as Aaron — turning rods into serpents, etc. 
Remembering that magic in the modern harrow sense 
was not anciently separated from divination, it is surely 
not too much to say that the word TT in Gen. and Exod. 
is a general one. The LXX. renders variously by i£r)yv}Tal 
(expounders), cVaotSol (chanters — those who say the in- 
cantations), and QapfxaKol (those who use drugs for 
magical ends), a proof that these translators were as 
uncertain as we are as to what exactly the word signifies. 

Lenormant (" Chald. Magic ") says the word means 
exorcists, those who cast Out evil spirits, but he gives no 
reason. 

Daniel was, we have seen, made President of the wise 
men (DWSH) (Dan. ii. 48). In Dan. iv. 6 we are told 
he was made head of the D^StDin (khartummim). It 
need not affect our position that in v. 1 1 he was made 
chief of the Detain, VStfM," r*Frt03, \bn. The first 

word is really what the writer means, the rest are mere 
interpretations or specifications of this one ; just as in 
Ex. vii. 11, D^Sl^pp (mekashshephim) is an interpreta- 
tion of the word it follows. It is possible that in both 
cases the words which come after are glosses added by 
a later hand. 
I take it then that both W>3 H and D^DtOTT are general 

terms. The last is the older word, and it may be either 
Egyptian or a loan word used by the Egyptians. At 



44 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

any rate, there is no good reason for saying that it is 
Babylonian, as it occurs in the E document. VP 1 ?^ IS 
probably got from Babylon, and may be the Semitic 
rendering of the Accadian cmga, or the Persian £♦ {vtagh). 

Old Testament Words for Magic or in 
Relation to it. 

Now let us come to words which are more specific. I 
begin with that word for magic which is most general 
and which is used even more for divination. 

i. DDp (qesem). I place this among words for magic 
because I think that primarily it had that sense, though 
the secondary meaning, when it got way, outstripped 
and almost shut out the primary. 

Fleischer l and Muhlau u. Volck 2 maintain the primary 
magical meaning of this word. W. R. Smith 3 is so sure 
that the contrary opinion is right, that but " for the 
great name of Fleischer it would be hardly necessary to 
waste a word on the rival theory that the word first 
meant a magical formula and then came to denote 
divination." 

Wellhausen 4 writes equally strongly against Fleischer's 
etymology. He says, 44 Das ist speculative Etymologie 
alten Stils, die auf das Verfahren bei der Sache keine 
Rucksicht nirnmt und sich um die sogenannten Anti- 
quitaten nicht kummert." While Robertson Smith 
makes " decision M the fundamental thought in the 
word, Wellhausen thinks it is " allotment or distribu- 
tion" (Zutheilung). Stade 5 follows Smith and Well- 
hausen as against Fleischer. 

1 Quoted by Delitzsch on Isa. iii. 2. 3 Gesenius's Lex. 10 

* Jour. Phil., xiii. 279. "* Reste, p. 134. d ». 503, note 



MAGIC 45' 

In proof of his general position, R. Smith seeks con- 
firmation from the Arabic. In Quran v. 4 we have the 

-CSC S - C- C 

phrase fftj*\} ^U-a^V obtaining a djvme decree at the 
Sanctuary by headless arrows. 

Rodwell renders this phrase " division of the slain 
by consulting arrows," but it probably means seeking an 
oracle by arrows according to an ancient custom of 
mixing arrows and letting one be taken out at random.' 
Rodwell refers to the classical passage in Pockock, 1 and 
this might, if carefully read, have guided him to a better 
interpretation. 

W. R. Smith supplies other references to Arabic 
writers to show that the word means to consult the 
deity or deities by drawing lots. But that the word did 
have this secondary meaning no scholar, and least of all 
Fleischer, would doubt. The question is : What is its 
primary meaning ? 

The story he gives on p. 219 from Bokhari, iv. 219 f., 
headed in the original, " The qasama in the time of 
heathenism," tells more against Smith's theory than 
for it. The oath was resorted to in order to find 
out who was guilty of a particular murder. The tribe 
charged with the crime take an oath of innocence, and 
soon all die. Now the appeal is by oath. But this oath 
is simply a kind of magical conjuration ; had it been 
true and correct it could have influenced the deities 
appealed to in a contrary direction. It is a case of 
magical language and methods brought into the service 
of divination. Or, better still, at the beginning the tw<5 
were not distinguished, both being regarded as appeals 
to spirits or gods. He refers for Biblical usage to 

* "Specimen." Ed. White, p. jx§. 



46 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

Prov. xvi. 1 6, where the word is used, with no colouring, 
of a king's decision ; to Ezek. xxi. 22, where the king of 
Babylon shot his arrows in order to know which of two 
ways to take. 

Rashi on Deut. xviii. 10, explains the OD^p as one 
who divines by a rod. He refers to Hosea iv. 12 for a 
parallel instance (Greek pafiBofiavrzia). 

From this primary meaning of divining by lot the 
word acquired the general meaning of decision, giving 
sentence, the Dpp being one who seeks such a 
decision. Its commonest rendering in the LXX., fiavrh, 
shows its wider connotation. 

W. R. Smith proceeds to show from Aramaic usage 
that l&oJb is the most general word for revealer, 
diviner, among the heathen Arameans, though proofs of 
the narrow sense — divination by lot — are not wanting. 
Assuming the view of W. R. Smith, QDp to cut, may 
be explained by the cutting of pieces of wood, etc., to be 
used as lots. This is as likely as his own explanation, 
that " cut " is taken in the sense of " define,' 1 " decide." 

Now with all deference to the scholarship of 
W. R. Smith and Wellhausen, I venture to think that 
they have not sufficiently considered the difference 
between early usage and later. It is almost certain that 
at first magic and divination were not discriminated,: 
words used for one were used for the other. The fact 
that DDp has the sense of divination mostly, does not 
prove that its root and original meaning is this. I have 
already referred to an example of the use of magical 
means to obtain an oracle; in other words, among the 
Egyptians the priests divined by means of magic. (See 
page 28.) 



MAGIC 47 

That DDp denoted in the first place magical conjura- 
tion, note the use of the Arabic word f*~* in its second 
and fourth forms, and the meaning of &*UJ an oath. 

* 

The Syriac *-Jaooj to exorcise, the aphel form of fee*] 

or pfi^ to swear, is evidence of the same kind. 

Then look at the Greek expression op/aa rijivtvOai, 
which occurs in Herodotus iv. 70, 71, 201, Homer II. 
* v * * 55) an d * n other Greek writers in the sense of 
making an oath with, then to make a covenant with. t€/xvo> 
has the same radical meaning a$ DDp, i.e. to cut, divide. 
J think in both cases there is an original reference to 
.sacrifice, such as accompanied covenants as well as 
magical oaths. Cf. the phrases J>H3 JVJ3, icere (and 
ferire, percutere) foedus/ 

As regards actual usage, DDp means some form of 
►divination in most cases. But it is so far from being 
certain that this is the primary meaning of the word, 
'that the contrary view, advocated by Fleischer, is 
probably the right one. 

* The word acquired so wide a signification as to stand 
for divining by means of the 6b 3W (in 1 Samuel 
xxviii. 8). 

With W. R. Smith and Wellhausen there can be no 
quarrel when they say that Qesem has originally a 
religious meaning. This is true of all the terms used for 
both magic and divination. 

2. Consider next the root ^$3. Several considera- 
tions unite in helping to understand the exact meaning 
of the word. 

First, there is the etymology, which, however, is very 
uncertain. The old view is that we have the root in the 



48 MAGIC, DIVINATION, A\D DEMONOLQGY 

Arabic olai', which means to uncover, to reveal. Divi- 
nation would in that case be the primary sense. Against 
this is, however, the fact that Arabic J* corresponds to 
Hebrew to or D, not #, and that O^StiJB in Micah v. n, 
denotes material drugs, and is rendered by the LXX. 

Fleischer 1 argues for its derivation from «Ju£ to 
eclipse, of sun, moon (God being subject). Then to be 
eclipsed, darkened. From this comes the meaning to 
look dark, troubled ; to sink (of the eyes); become low 
(of the voice), so to speak in a low, murmuring tone. 
Then to pray. The Aramaic usage goes well with this, 

as aA^^I as to supplicate, entreat But why not be 
content with the middle meaning, to be troubled, to 
look gloomy, distressed ? This attitude well suits the 
suppliant. 

We may have in *)&*3 the same idea that lies in *SD3, 
to be obscure, indistinct ; then pale, white — the sup- 
pliant's face taking this colour. Diaiectically, there is 
nothing in the way of this identification, as Arabic y* m 
Hebrew D ( r ^. = 1!3D, to nail) as well as tf ( 7 *-=: , TOttf, 
to wake by night). The *}t6D& ^ould then be a pale- 
faced, troubled one, cf. «-&*A£, unlucky, of days. The 
magician as wonder-worker, and also as diviner, fre- 
quently emaciating himself by fasting, sought special 
communion with the spirit world; cf. possible derivation 
of tt>PO from J*©* , to be hungry. 

Is it possible that in *|Xb = *)D3, "to be white," we 

have a hint of the source of the later designation White 

Magic, TYttf , in Isaiah xlvii. 1 1 , if it is right to connect it 

with y*f* , having in it the idea of Black Magic, 5 1H#aa 

1 Levy's " Neuheb. Wort," ii. 459a. 



MAGIC 

black, cf. under intf , p. 57 ff. W. R. Smith* traces *)#3 
to Arabic <-A~*£ in sense of i{ to cut, 11 and lie refers for 
explanation to that feature of Semitic religion in which 
worshippers cut themselves when appearing before deity.* 

D'3^3 (a noun from the root of the verb) are, he 
thinks, " herbs or drugs shredded into a magic brew M 
(cf. i-*^, pi. of &~i', bits of a thing). This derivation 
ives the best explanation of the noun D^5)$3 in Micah. 
f Fleischer's etymology or the modified one suggested 
be right, 0^2^)3 would then be those ingredients which 
were used in approaching deity. 

It is not, however, so certain as W. R. Smith makes 

it, that the term denotes something material. It may 

mean the mere performances of the ^K'DD. " To cut off 

, "3 from thine hands " can have a figurative sense as well 

as a literal one. 

The LXX. rendering is not strong enough even with the 
help of *pTQ %o establish the material sense of D^D^S . 
In 2 Kings ix. 22, Nah. iii. 4, the LXX. renders the word 
by <j>dpfiaKa, but in neither of these passages can it mean 
drugs, nor can it have this meaning in Isa. xlii. 9, 12 
(LXX. ^apjxaKua) or in Num. xxiii. 3. 3 

Hebrew *}#3 is commonly represented in. the Syriac 

version by ^J..**. ^$30 * n Deut. xviii. io = lA* t lfc t 
□'3l#3=i*f4ft. In all the twelve instances in which 
some form of *]W3 occurs in the Old Testament, it is 

1 Journ. Phil., xiv. p. 125. 

2 See I Kings xviii. 2S {re worshippers of Baal) and Jer. xli. 5. 
(Men came from Shiioh and Samaria, with shaven beards and with 
bodies that were cut, carrying offerings.) 

a Where read with Kueneu V3ZQ} TJ^n. 



MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOL06Y 

some form of ** f*» that is made to translate it in the 
Peshitta. 

What then does **f* mean ? W. ]£. Smith,' in order 
to iind support for his view that *)$3;r: 4 < to cut," suggests 
that «»&£*» is of the same origin as the Arabic ^ji and 
*-^., which mean the peculiar food given to women in 
childbed, and which was a drug, thus agreeing exactly 
with <p£pfia*a. But surely there is in the Syriac language 
itself an explanation of wkf*a, for this very word means 
also to be silent, being equivalent to Hebrew EhPT 
(especially Hi.) and Arabic \j*f-* The \&f** } following 
this etymology, is one that speaks in a low mumbling 
tone — one that restrains his speech. 

Fried. Delitzsch 1 connects the root with the Assyrian 
Kharashu, which has the meaning of restraining, compel- 
ling, binding. 2 This last supplies the best clue to the 
magical signification of **t**, and it is the common idea 
out of which that of being silent, restraining one's self, 
etc., arises. 

W. R. Smith's etymology, based as it is on a~rare 
Arabic word, is far less likely than an etymology which 
is common to the principal Semitic languages. 

3. The verb ViTw (lakhasli), found in Aramaic and in 
Rabbinical Hebrew with the sense of "to hiss t as a serpent/' 
is in my opinion a denominative from itinb (lakhash), 
which is merely a dialectical variety of ttfnj (nakhash), 
a serpent, b and ) are both liquids, and both tend to 
fall out, as the nun in ]"B verbs, and the b in Tlpb- 

Cf. also the imperfect of w£u^&, imperf. wjocu, and the 

1 Proleg., p. IOO. 3 Cf. -Qn and the magical tying. 



MAGIC cjf 

o 

occultation of b* in r ^ll. In the following words 
h and ] change places, with little, if any, difference of 
meaning : \r\b and \H2 both signify to oppress ; nsttrt* 

and nSBtt both mean cell or chamber; D7S=f***, image. 

In the Arabic dialects ^st^a?, while ^ and ^ inter- 
change with each other. The form with b is kept in the 
O.T. mainly for the department of magic ; ttfnj is used 
almost wholly in connection with divination. Not at all 
unlikely, the change came about through a desire, more 
instinctive than conscious, to use different words for 
different things. 

Another tie uniting both words is the common mean- 
ing of unlucky, which is found in each of the Arabic 

equivalents <j~*J (lahasa) (as <j*f*$ lahus, unlucky, <L^ V J 

unfortunate year), and ^^ (nahasa), <j~**> (nahs), un- 
lucky, unhappy. This bad meaning which attaches to 
both words arises probably through their connection 
with the serpent, regarded as an evil spirit. 

The objection which W. R. Smith urges against 
making the verbs U)Tlb (lakhash) and tfna (nakhash) 
denominatives, that #nj, in the sense of serpent, occurs 
in no Semitic language except Hebrew, is not conclusive,- 
for in each of these languages there are words derived 
from simpler forms found only in some one sister tongue. 
Nor does Smith adhere to the principle laid down in this 
connection, since he explains ]^D (me'onen) from 

tft (ghanna), a word which occurs only in Arabic, just 
as he connects Syriac wa^ (kheresh) with the root 
^f* or &~f- found in Arabic alone, and but rarely in this 
language. The place held by the serpent in ancient 



S MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

religions must be here assumed. On the matter the fol- 
lowing works may be consulted, " The Worship of the 
Serpent," by Rev. J. Deane, London, 1832, 2nd edition, 
1833, considerably enlarged ; " Tree and Serpent Wor- 
ship," by James Fergusson, 1868 and 1873 ; Baudissen's 
"Studien zur Semit. Religions-geschichte," i. 256 ff. ; 
11 Gotzendienst u. 2auberwesen," etc., Scholz, p. 79 f. ; 
Wellhausen's "Reste," p. i$2 f. One of the earliest 
Gnostic sects, if not the earliest, goes by the name 
of Ophites (o^is) and Na'asites (#n?), because the symbol' 
of the serpent was central in their ritual and theology. 
C£-*n\0 (serpent), in Isa. xiv. 29, xxx. 6. Wellhausen 
thinks there is reference in these passages to the glace 
of the serpent in the old religions. 1 

In Eccles. ic.ii, and in Jer. viii. 17 ttfrf? O^khash) 
stands for a snake charm, something which prevents the 
snake from biting. In both verses Itirf) (lakhash) and ttfna 
(nakhash) are brought together as happy and designed 
antitheses, though both originally sprang from the game 
root. Since the serpent represented an evil spirit, and even 
the devil,* Virfo (lakhash) came to mean a charm against 
any demon, and the #ft*?0 (melakhesh) a charmer against 
any and every evil spirit, as in Isa. ii. 3. 

The ornaments mentioned in Isa. iii. 20 were originally 
amulets to protect against demons. Among them 
0'V)f]b (lekhashim) are named. What exact shape these 
were of, is a matter of uncertainty ; but as the next 
words stand for finger-rings and nose-rings, it is not at 
all pnlikely that this word stands for ear-rings, which 

* See Weilh. Reste, p. 155. 

5 See SmenH, p. 119; cf. the serpent that tempted Eve; see also 

Grimm, p. 990. 



were certainly amulets, as is- shown by Gen. xxxv. 4 

The two latter words are used in Isa. iii. 20 for tPffift* 
Dr. Smith so explains $r6, and he is probably right. In 
Isa. xxvi. 16 tinb denotes prayer, a meaning easily 
deducible from incantation; * But the text of this, verse 
appears to be corrupt. 

V)nh is so closely connected with demonology that it 
might have been left to that part of this treatise. But 
it belongs also to magic, as all amulets necessarily do, and 
it seemed advisable to deal with this species of magic 
before the next is dealt with, as both are closely con- 
nected by W. R. S. 2 

4. -Qff (kheber), T3n (khober). There are but three 
places in the Old Testament in which "inn, as noun or as 
verb, has a significance for magic. These are Deut. 

xviii. 11 (inn inn), Ps. tviii. 6 (Dnnn •ti'rt), and Isa. 

xlvii. 9, 12, twice (Q^pn). 

In Ps. lviii. 6 &VJrbo b*\p is followed immediately by 
DH3PT 13fT. W. R. Smith' concludes that the same 
thing is meant by both, the parallelism, he thinks, 
showing this. The conception at the root of 13H is, he 
alleges, snake-charming. "OPF is therefore like #nS 
a charm against the snake. This view is at least as old 
as the Talmud 3 ; it is defended by Pseudo- Jonathan, and 
by Rashi (see his commentary orr Deut. xviii. 10). 
In the Talmud, however, a distinction is made between 

1 Perhaps by ^}H/ we are to understand a serpent-shaped 5 ear-ring, 
so formed because designed, on the principle of symbolic magic, to be a 
countercharm against the snake. Cf. p. 38 ff. 

* Journ. Phil., xiv. p. 114 f. J* See Jebam, 121a. 



54 MAGTC, DIVINATION, AND iDEMONOLOGY' 

the great Khober 7VT3 "nft, who exercises tiis magic upon* 

great animals, and the small Khbber }bp *15fy w ^° uses 
it against smaller animals— serpents, scorpions, insects, 
etc. (See Brecher, p. 138.) Smith would have done 
better to follow Gesenius (Thes, i. 441), who interprets 
lirr literally to bind, of magical knots, than to go back 
to the baseless Jewish traditional explanation. It shows 
the enormous influence of this great English scholar 
that Buhl (Ges. l2 ) and Sigfried and Stade in their 
lexicons, Stade in his Geschichte (i. 105), and Driver in. 
his commentary on Deut. xviii. 10, tread in his steps ; 
yet the evidence is of the slightest. The word "Ol 
refers to the effect^ not to the cause or instrumentality. 

Incantations as well as amulets were used to bind 
demons. To these the deaf adder stops his ears, 
Ps. lviii. 5. He listens not to the sound of the magician, 
bind they ever so cleverly. 

Parallelism, on which Rob. Smith bases his argument, 
does not mean that words thus joined have identical 
meanings. We need not travel beyond the Psalm 
referred to in order to show this. In ver. 4 D'y^") 
is parallel With HD niTT, and Vtt with tyja Who would 

infer that therefore the words thus related have the 
same shade of meaning ? 

Moreover, in the other passages, Deut. xviii. 11, Isa. 
xlvii. 9, 12, DHIin is parallel to D^Bltfl), and it is the more 

striking that in the same chapter of Isaiah, both these 
words are found together in v. 9 and in v. 12. If paral- 
lelism is to decide, it is most certainly in favour of making 
OH^n and D^p^I) identical in meaning, rather than 

onnn and wv}nb 



MAGIC Sf 

12J1 means u to tie, bind/* in Hebrew? Aramaic and 

Ethiopic, and gets its sense in magic from the fact 
that the person using 1211 binds the spirits or gods. 

It is in the same sense that the Greeks used *aTa- 
8«a> (see references in Passow, " Handworterbuch der 
Griechischen Sprache," ste Auflage, vol. i. p. 160a), 
the Romans '• ligare, ligulam," the Arabs yJ^\ ifc, 

v?/*> the Germans "Nestel kntipfen," and the English 
u magic knots." In all this we have traces of what we 
call sympathetic, or, what Tylor calls, symbolic magic. 

R. Smith thinks the binding refers to the words : 
words bounds so as to constitute a magical formula. 
Gesenius suggests this too, though at the expense of 
consistency. (See loc. cit.) The binding in that case 
refers to the words, not the magical act implied. Upon 
the face of it, this is unlikely, as the analogy of Aramaic, 
Ethiopic, as well as that of modern languages shows. 

Dr. Smith supports his view that 1211 1211 = nectere 
verba, from the Arabic ^ " a narrative, that which is 
fastened together." Now, the root meaning of y& is 
M to know"; in the 4th form, p&\ "to make to know." 
j-a. is a communication of knowledge. In no instance 
does the word convey the notion of binding. Far more 
likely is the connection of 1211 with the Arabic p**. 
Hebrew n = Arabic i (as ttfnn = J-^ "to be deaf and 
dumb ") and t (as U)1J1 " to cut, plough "= «±y*). The con- 
nection of Hebrew (and Syriac) HUn with ^ is thus 
linguistically possible. Some additional considerations 
render it probable. According to Lane (sub vbce) p*> 
means u to make beautiful " (of handwriting, poetry, 
language, science, etc.) Freytag also gives pulchrum fecit 



$6 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEM6N0L6GY 

as the fundamental meaning. Now, this would most 
naturally arise out of an earlier meaning of 44 to bind"; 
thus, to fasten together words so as to make beautiful 
sentences, thoughts, and the like. Moreover, both 
Freytag and Lane explain ft^ as a sweet, a beautiful 
melody, which connects ^ with magical intonation. 
Again, 12H in Hebrew means a companion, an associate ; 
in later Hebrew, a member of the same society, guild ; 
then, a Jewish priest or doctor. This word is represented 

O C - SO €& "C 

in N Arabic by ^ and p*> ; cf. Wj** " pontifical M 
in modern Arabic. These last may be, however, mere 
loan words ; but even the representation of Hebrew n by 
Arabic t is significant for my argument. We have pro- 
bably the same ro€>t in b2Jl " to bind," in the Arabic jil 
"to tie, bind/ 1 and J*^ "a cord or halter to tie with." 
Now the liquids (^, D, 3i 1) exchange freely in the Semitic 
languages. (See Wright's "Comparative Grammar of 
the Semitic Languages," Cambridge, 1890, p. 67 f[.y 

Hebrew D3D?& ("widow") is in Syriac \££>), and in 

Arabic &+j\. Thus, "On, t£ua, 7^, and J**, are all 
dialectic variants of ons common and original root 
meaning "to bind"; while y& seems to stand outside 
of this category. 

Before passing away from this oinding magic, it is of 
interest to note the Rabbir/cal word for "amulet," 
JWpj?, which comes from yep (=2^) "to bind, to master." 
Its passive form makes k likely, however, that the JPDj? 
is that which is bound to (he person, as an amulet, and not 
that which binds the Deity. This Hebrew word is used 
for the Tephellfn (Phylacteries), etc. (See Levy, Neu- 
Hek Worterbach, sub voce.) 



MAGIC 57 

It is not impossible that Christ's words to the disciples, 
11 What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be 
bound in heaven : and what things ye shall loose on 
earth shall be loosed in heaven " (Matt, xviii. 1 8), were 
suggested by this magical practice, known in His time 
and in His country as*in all times and lands. 

5. in# (shakhar), in Isa. xlvii. 11, has since the time 

of J. H. Michaelis (f 1738) been explained as? referring 
to magic. ^(See his Annot. ad Biblia, 1720.) He was 
followed by J. D. Michaelis (Suppl. ad Lex. Heb., p. 2314), 
Koppe, Doed., Eichhorn, Hitzig, Ewald, De Wette, Dill- 
mann (who reads mnitf), Kautzsch (" Heilige Schrift * weg 

z\\ Zaubern ■ "), Wellhausen (" Reste," p. 159, note i, and 
" Israel, u. Jud. Gesch.," 1895, p.'ioo). So also margin 
.ofR.V, 

The favour of this exegesis are the following considera- 
tions : — (1) It makes excellent sense. In the first clause 
the evil that will come is such as cannot be kept off by 
any magical incantation or amulet or drug, such as were 
used to keep off injuries due to demons ; in the second 
the destruction is such as no payment can prevent — it is 
beyond being expiated for* To be charmed away makes 
a good parallel with to be bought 'off, to be kept away by 
payment. 

(2) The word employed. here has its equivalent in the 

6 O 

Arabic ^*, the word most commonly used for magic. 
The .primary meaning of the verb ^* is to turn or 
transform a thing into something else, love into hatred, 
etc. The evil in this passage might well be described as 
that which could not be turned into anything else; it 
was, as such, inevitable. 
(3) The words were written in Babylon ^here magic. 



5 8 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGV 

was extensively cultivated. Assuming the root existing 
in Arabic to be so old, the intelligent Babylonian native 
or resident would be likely to be acquainted with it, as 
the thing for which it stood was so rife around him. 

(4) In the next verse two undoubted magical terms 
are found, viz. D^ir? (khebarim) and D^ttfll (keshaphim), 

which shows that the idea of magic was in the writer's 
mind. Yet, if the word has in this verse the sense first 
claimed for it by J. H. Michaelis, it is Strange that in the 
whole range of Hebrew literature, ancient and modern, 
it never again occurs with this meaning ; nor does 
Aramaic (Syriac, or so-called Chaldee) supply one 
solitary example of this signification. 

Of the ancient versions the LXX. renders the verse 
somewhat freely, but it represents mnttf (shakhrah) by 

(S&Ovvos (=/?o'0/>os), evidently reading nrvti (shakhat). 

In the Syriac we have } ' t ^ jL Q . " in the morning," reading 
"in^-1 (bashshakhar). Not one of these gives a good 
sense. Not the LXX., for the pit cannot be said to come 
upon one; not the Syriac, because, "in the morning n 
does not correspond to anything following it ; in fact, 
the rest of the verse is very confused in this version. 

In Ges. -Buhl's lexicon there is a happy suggestion, 
though it has no support in the versions, nor before 1895 
was it ever, I think, put forward, unless Sigfried and 
Stade's lexicon hints at it. The first-named lexicon 
would substitute nin$ (shikhadah), but as the Qal of 

this verb is alone used, it would be better to read iT7n# 

TT J 

(shekhadah). The English will then be : " There shall 
come upon thee an evil which thou art not able to 
prevent by payment, and destruction shall fall upon thee 



MAGIC $9 

such as thou art not able to expiate. 11 The verb is 
found in Job vi. 22 in the sense of paying a ransom to 
keep away some calamity. 

In Prov. vi. 35 the nouns 193 (kopher) and IFKtf 
(shakhad) occur in corresponding members of the verse, 
just as the verbs do in Isaiah. The Proverbs passage 
may be thus put into English : " He will not be pro- 
pitiated by any ransom ; nor will he be well disposed 
though thoy multiply thy gifts to hirru" (Sheyne ■ adopts 
this emendation. 

Magic in the New Testament. 

I want to make one or two references to New Testa- 
ment passages which also have to do more or less with 
magic among the Hebrews. 

What has been called Battologia is derived from 
Battus (Barro*) t a Greek poet who used many repeti- 
tions or, according to Herodotus, 2 who stuttered. The 
word is, however, possibly mimetic. Whatever may be 
its etymology, the verb fiarrokoytto has in Greek literature 
the meaning of prattling, babbling, excessive talking. 
(See the Greek lexicons.) 

Among the ancients, repetitions of certain formulae 
were considered efficacious in proportion to the number 
of repetitions. In India to-day, if an ascetic says in one 
month the name of Radha, Krishna or Ram 100,000 
times, he cannot fail to obtain what he wants. 

It is in the same spirit that Moslem dervishes renew 
their shrieks or whirlings : the more this is done the 
greater the power which Allah has over them. 

1 Sacred Books of the Old Test. " Isaiah ": Addenda to Hebrew text. 

2 *. 155. 



66 MAOld, DIVINATION, ANT> b£todNOl6$Y 

The prophets of Baal cabled upon their god from 
morning until night in the same spirit (i Kings xviii. 2$, 
saying, 4( Baal, hear us m , 

Christ, in the sermon on the mount, warns His hearers 
against believing that the efficacy of a prayer depends 
on the number of times it is said (Matt. vi. 7). 

The words w /JarroAoy^rc 1 mean " Do not repeat 
yourselves " (in prayer), and ' have reference to the 
same superstition. Unless such a practice was in vogue 
among the Jews of His time, He would not have deemed 
it necessary to give this warning. 

11 Pray without , ceasing " (1 .Thess. v. 12) may have 
been suggested to the Apostle's mind by the super- 
stitious habit of reiteration in prayer, v" Keep on 
praying," i.e. " be always in the praying temper."- 

In Eisenmenger's " Endectes Judenthum," vol. i. 
580 f., we read that when in the various synagogues 
prayer is separately said, these prayers are woven by an 
angel into a crown, which is set on God's head. A The 
more the prayers, the larger the crown. 

In 2 Tim. iii. 13, yorjr^s (from yoa<o to sigh, utter low 
mournful tone^) is used of a class of magicians who uttered 
certain prescribed magical formulae in a low, deep voice. 
Herodotus described them as being in Egypt 2 and else- 
where ; 3 they are also mentioned by Euripides and Plato. 
The word is rendered by Luther " verfuhrerische Men* 
schen," and in the English versions by " impostor." 

The Syriac Pesh.. version gives |i ~v^ v^ "those who 
lead astray." The Hebrew New Testaments of Salkinson 
and of Delitzsch more correctly translate by D^DDp for 

1 Cf. Eccles. viii. 14 : /lo) tttvrepticrTis Xoyov Iv Trpocrevxji <rov, '** Do not 
repeat thy words in thy prayer." For references to Battology among 
Moslems and others, see Lange in Herzog, xviii. 396. 

Lii, 3JL , 3 .jv. 105 ; vji\ 191^ 



MAGIC 6l 

which, in English, " diviners " is mostly used. " Sor- 
cerers " would be as near the original as any other 
English word. 

Accepting W. Robertson Smith's etymology a 
]%ty&t this word has a very similar meaning tp yo^rcs; 
cf. Fleischer's derivation of *)#3 from u^ } to speak -in 
a low murmuring tone. 1 

Paul, in addressing the Galatians, names among the 
works of -the flesh <f>apfxaK€ia (Eng..VV„ " sorcery "; 

Syr. Ua±f4* kharashuta ; Hebrew Testaments of Salk. 
and Del. D^Stite) keshaphim), which is closely connected 
with u idolatry M by being put next after it (Gal. v. 20). 

It is not possible here to do more than mention Simon 
Magus, or Simon the Magician (Acts viii. 9 f.), and Bar- 
jesus the Sorcerer, whom Luke calls also Elymas (Acts 
xiii. 8). This latter name the writer explains by o pdyos ; 
it is really the Arabic fiM 'aleem (or ^ 'alim), "learned/ 1 
which i$ much the same in sense as /*ayo£ 

Post-Biblical Judaism. 

As later Jewish magic is for the most part associated 
with belief in the existence and power of demons, much 
on this subject will be found under the head of 
M Demonology." 

In the main Dr. Rabbi D. Joel 2 is right In claiming 
for the Mishna comparative freedom from magical 1 
principles. That is due largely to the fact that in the | 
Mishna we have a collection of the laws and principles 
which were to guide the Jew : the Oral law tfvutf m\n 
H9) as opposed to the written Orpattf mi/n). 

Nevertheless, if the belief in magic were common among 
See sufra, p. 48. * Der Aber, p. 34 . 



62 " MAGIC," DIVINATION," AND DEMONOLOOY 

the Jews of the first and second centuries of our era, and 
if it were approved by the national leaders, we should 
expect to find regulations concerning it in this law book. : 
But we look in vain for anything of the kind. 

In the Talmud, however, there are many acknow- 
ledgments of the existence among the Jews in Palestine 
and Babylon of magical superstitions. Joel quotes* 
examples, though he is too anxious to make little of 
them, and to claim for his co-religionists a freedom from 
superstition which they have no right to claim. Where 
the later Jews got their magic from is a debated and 
debatable question I See a discussion of this question' 
at pa^fe 114 ff. I will anticipate so much as to say that 
there is a growing tendency to make Gnosticism the, 
principal source of later Jewish magic and demonology.' 
This Gnosticism is for the most' part a growth out of 
the native Babylonian religion, but in it we have a 
remarkable syncretism of elements, belonging in the 
main to Babylon, but alsb to Greece (Neoplatonism), 
Egypt and Persia. 1$ Gnosticism, as in Judaism, names . 
and numbers play a great r6lc» ! 

In many of the old religions, names of deities were 
credited with extraordinary powef. He who used them' 
was master of the gQd. As the priests grew in power,' 
they claimed the exclusive knowledge of these names.' 
, We have an instance of this in the Tetragrammaton. 1 It j 
has been the custom to (> trace the sacredness of this] 
'name to the Pythagorean Tetraktys, or mystic number 
of four. Dr. Gaster sees in the Gnostic "Tetraktys " — 
1 -formed by combining the 'first two divine sysygies or 

1 The four consonants of the Hebrew word for Yahwe. The vowel- 
sounds were included in what we now call consonants* as in Assyrian,' 
Erhiopic, and originally in all Semitic languages,- 



MAGIC 



63 



pairs — the real counterpart of the Hebrew " Four- letter- 
word. " 

But, whatever the source, there is no denying the fact 
of the sacred and ,all-prevailing efficacy of M Yahve." He 
who, in his prayer, was able to use this name, was sure 
to get what he asked for. Prayer was often fruitless just 
because this name was left out. (Eisenmenger i. 581 f.) 
Compare with this the place given in the New Testa- 
ment to n#me as standing for the person (John, i. 12). 
When other names got to be substituted for the 
Tdragrammaton, they in their turn were believed to 
have the same mystic power. Belief in angels grew, 
and it was soon thought that their names, when used 
in certain formulae, had an influence, less indeed, 
but not less real than those of Yahve. Names of 
God and of angels were varied in ways familiar to 
students of the Oabbalah. 1 So in many old Jewish 
incantations the most bewildering names present them- 
selves. The most complete and important monument 
of mediaeval Jewish magic is the " Sword of Moses/' the 
original text of which has been recently found by Dr. 
Gaster. He gives a complete translation in Asiatic 
Journal, January, 1896, p. 175 ff., together with an 
account of the discovery and character of the MS. A 
reference to this will show the most extraordinary 
combinations of letters to form names which exists in 
any language. 

Magic among Arabs and Moslems. 

In tracing the history of religious thought and custom 
among tK^ Arabs, we have the disadvantage that the 
literature of this people is comparatively recent ; none 

See Ginsburg's Kabb,, p. 49 [. 



64 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

of it going further back than, say, a century or two 
before the appearance of Mohammed. Of pre-Islamic 
literature, not only have we but little preserved, but 
that little is nearly altogether poetry (Mo'allaqatj etc.). 
Freytag, in his Einleitung, etc,,, and Wellhausen, in his 
** Reste," etc., have gathered together in their valuable 
books such notices as they have found in Arabic literature, 
bearing upon the subjects under consideration. Frey- 
tag's work is not nearly as well known as it ought to be, 
though it is lacking in that conciseness and accuracy 
by which' Wellhausen's book is marked. As regards 
magic, both these writers concern themselves mainly 
with its demonological side : Wellhausen deals ^t length 
with what he calls 4( Gegenzauber " (countercharm), 
which he defines as the i( art of making demons harmless 
and of scaring them away." 

This is the principal use to which, among the primi- 
tive Arabs, magic was put. I shall return to this when 
dealing with demonology. 

Mohammed, from the standpoint of monotheism, 
stoutly opposed that kind of magic for which }*** 

stands, as it was associated with heathenism and 
involved appeals to other spiritual beings than God. 
For the same reason he condemned divination, as it is 

represented by the word &Q>. On the other hand, 
among orthodox Moslems, almost if not quite from the 

Prophet's day, the system of magic covered by 2y*> 
has been regarded as permissive, because in it only God 
and good angels are invoked. It is probable, indeed, 
that the Prophet did not allow any but Allah to be thus 
recognized, as is the case among those Moslem puritans, 
the Wahhabees, at the present day. 



MAGIC 65 

There is a Very elaborate science giving details as 

\o how the incantations called «a>^*> are to be 

recited and the results interpreted. The best native 

work on the subject is the " Juwahiree 'l-Khamsat," 

by Sheikh Abu '1-Muwayyid of Gergerat, a.h. 956. 

Hughes, in his Dictionary of Islam, gives an epitome of 

as much of the work as is not peculiar to Indian Islam. 1 
& - 
The word tyso in its magical sfcnse does not occur 

in the Qurar, tjbough in its ordinary meaning of prayer 

it is found six times.- 

The spell or charm termed Ruqya (<M;) was 
also allowed by the Prophet, so says Anas, whose words 
are given by Hughes. 2 

Ruqya was made up of passages from the Quran, 
either spoken, or written on an amulet which was worn, 
the purpose being to keep off the evil eye, epilepsy, etc., 
which were believed. to be the work of demons. 3 

The Quran has the word four times, or, if we include 
the doubtful case J»y&\ , five times. In all but one it has 
its usual meaning "to ascend." In Sura lxxv. 27 j^ 
appears to denote " magician." There is no opinion ex- 
pressed as to whether or not the ^ is approved of, 

Perhaps the word does not in this case depart from its 
connotation in the other places, the question then being, 
"Who is able to arise out of the calamity newly de- 
scribed? " 

&♦*>* is another magieal term in use among the Arabs. 
The word denotes strictly " determination," from fy* " to 
resolve," and is not found i.n this form or (magical) sense 
in the Quran. It denotes a charm consisting of Quran? 

1 See p. 72 ff. i lb., p. 303b, 3 See Demonqlogy. 



66 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

verses recited with the intention of removing sickness. 
Arabic writers distihguish between q\Ju\ /&)*> which aim 
at influencing Allah, and J>y&\ **, which have the pur- 
pose of immediately acting against the Jinns or demons. 1 

Hyt from «3Vc (Aye) stands for ^n amulet worn upon the 
person, as phylacteries by the' Jews, to protect against 
demons, but especially against the evil eye. 8 Probably 
it had on it the 113th or 114th suras of the Quran, 
perhaps both. It is for this reason that these suras g6t 
the name e^I** though some will have it that this 
name is given to them because each begins with *3^c\ js. 

It is interesting to note that in Sura 113 we read of 
the ipagic knot otfc plural of Sate. 8JU* and *>f* are 
used interchangeably with ity. 

The next word to note in this connection is <u**l 
which has been wrongly identified with fay*. This last 
consists, as has been seen, of an amulet with a Quran 
inscription. &**♦*, on the other hand, is a blacjk bead 
speckled with white, though there ■ is room for doubt as 
to its exact shape. L 

Freytag, however, followed by Wellhausen, 3 says it is, 
3 necklace and not a bead, as Lane maintains. Besides 
differing in form from liy* its use was forbidden by 
Mohammed, while the former was allowed. A connection 
is suggested by Freytag with the 0*13^ worn by the 
high priest, Deut. xxxiii. 8, etc. Later Jewish scholars 
think that this has some connection with magic. 

Gildemeister considers <u**> to be 3 mere transcription 
of the Greek Telesma (T&ca/xa), whence the English. 

* See Wellh. Reste, 161, note 3. * lb., p. idc, note 4. 

3 Wellh. Reste, p. 166. 



MAGIC 07 

a talisman." The usual explanation of the word is that 
it comes from p (to be complete), because it was believed 
to keep th§ person whole or healthy. 

The tamima was worn by women and children only. 
As the boy grew up to manhood this amulet was taken 
from his neck. Though Islam disowns the name, this 
kind of amulet is still to be seen worn by the Meccan 
boys. 

v>U^ fc (strictly what hinders, keeps off) is used to 
describe an amulet which was kept in a case called 
^Aa^ c^o and suspended on the right side by a string 
passing over the left shoulder, or on some other part of 
the person. 

These words belong more to Demonology than to 
magic in its narrow sense, but it seemed desirable to give 
in one place a short account of the Arabic terms. 



Assyrian Magic. 

It is impossible here to supply more than a brief 
summary of results to which we are led by the able works 
of Lenormant, Tallqvist, Zimmern, King, mentioned in 
my list of authorities. 

What Lenormant maintains in his " Chaldean Magic M 
—that the magic ofthe Babylonians and Assyrians was 
handed on to them by the Accadians — is now generally 
admitted. 

But it was reserved for their successors to systematize 
the magic which they received from the Accadians, and 
to have it regulated and projected by the state. 

Among the Babylonians and Assyrians there were two 
kinds of magicians. 



68 magic, divination, and nkmonotogy 

Illegal Magic. 

I. There were those wizards and witches belonging to 
the olden time, who practised their art in simple ways, 
having no elaborate ritual or written incantations. They 
were supposed to have to do with demons, and to be in 
league with them in bringing ^ a( j { j reamS) misfortune, 
diseases, death, etc., upon people. They were therefore 
condemned by the government and subjected to severe 
penalties for carrying on their trade. Among those who 
practised this magic were both men and women. 

The names by which the men are known in the 
Cuneiform inscriptions are kaiapu (sss^DO), episu, sahiru, 

rahu. The women were known by corresponding names 
with the feminine ending, kaiaptu, epistu, sahirtu, 
rahirtu, etc. 

Singular to say, the females, whom we may call 
witches— reserving " wizards w for the male, were greatly 
in the ascendency, and seemed to do nearly all the work. 

In the Old Testament the existence of witches is 
implied in Ex. xxii. 17, " Thou shalt not suffer a sorceress 
(nS)£*DO) to live"; and in the. account of the Witch of 

En dor (31M rbyg) in 1 Sam. xxviii. 3 ff. 

Wizards and witches were credited with the ability to 
tear people's hair and clothes, to bring about sickness 
and even death. They could cause delusions and 
insanity. Families were divided by discord, lovers were 
made to hate each other. 

Not only had they power over hum&n beings, but they 
could bring into subjection to them the demons them- 
selves. 

The means they employed were the evil eye, evil 



bngue and the evil mouth. But it was' th£ evil word 
or imprecation that was most powerful* 

They tied magic knots, and other acts are assigned to 
them which we do not clearly understand. Their best 
known contrivance was to make an image of the person 
to be acted upon, and to treat this — cut, burn, etc.— just 
as they wanted the person whose image it was to be 
dealt with. This is really what we now call " sympathetic 
magic," ~md it is interesting to note how ancient and 
widespread this was. 

Legal Magic. 

Now we come to tfil class of recognized magicians who 
were called Essepu*br Assipu, the same word as. the 

Hebrew ^K and the Syriac |3qa|.\ 

These were the official magicians, and received from 

the state recognition and support. As opposed to the 

wizards and witches, their immediate intercourse was 

. v 

with the good spirits, especially with Ea, her sons Samas, 

Marduk, Gibil, and Misku, together with her daughter 

Ishtar and her husband Tammuz. 

The contrast between the two classes is to be compared 
vwith the more modern distinction of black and white 
imagic. 

In regard to black magic it will be noted that among 
fthe Babylonians, as well as among more modern nations, 
iwoman is a more prominent figure than man. So in 
[Eden she was first in disobedience. 

Mark too that, though among the Babylonians the 
good spirits were sought to by the official magicians, yet 
the purpose was mainly to obtain protection from the 
evil spirits. Worship, prayer, as we find them among 



/a MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

the Hebrews, was rare yet not absent. The interesting 
collection of prayers published and translated in Mr. 
King's u Bab. Magic " shows that the Babylonians could 
offer prayers, as earnest and even as spiritual as the 
Hebrews. Nevertheless the principal means employed 
were forms of incantation, medicaments, etc. 

But the Babylonian Essepu was more than anything 
else an exorcist, and this section might, with as much 
appropriateness, have found its place under Demon- 
ology. 

Like the wizards and witches, the exorcists (Assipi) 
made much use of the image, and in a similar way. 
Sometimes. one material .was used to make the likeness 
of the person ; sometimes different. ingredients were used 
for the different parts of the body. But the instruments 
of their art were chiefly medicines, drinks, foods, oint- 
ments,- ablution and purification. These were certainly 
in some cases adapted to secure the end desired, and they 
were selected for this reason. Indeed, in the later and 
more developed magic of the Babylonians, we have the 
beginnings of medical science, just as in their astrology 
we have the beginnings of astronomy. There is some 
honest striving after the truth in the most lame and 
grotesque attempts that infant man has made to discover 
the secrets of the world ; and he has never quite missed 
the mark. 

Egyptian Magic. 

There were two sides to Magic in Egypt as in Assyria. 
It could be used for the benefit of the human race or to 
the detriment of the same. 

Each man's fate was fixed, and what that was could be 
found out from the planet under which the individual 



MAGIC 7 1 

was born. Yet these fates could be controlled by the 
gods, who often interfered for the purpose of saving their 
favourites. Even man had power by specific acts and 
agents to overrule the fixtures of fate. The dead could 
be overmastered and indeed the gods themselves. 

The medical science of the Egyptians was closely 
connected with their magic, or rather demonology. 

The human body was divided into thirty-six parts, and 
over eacTx of these a deity presided. To keep on good 
terms with the respective deity was to preserve the part 
well. This is brought out in chapter xlii. of the " Book 
of the Dead," from which it appears that Nu saw to the 
hair, Ra to the face, Hather to the eyes, Assuat to the 
ears, Anubis to the lips, while Theth had charge of the 
body in general. 

Disease was considered due to demons, and certain 
formulae were recited, sometimes to be said over and 
over before they could be successful. The patient 
swallowed formulae written on papyrus ; amulets were 
worn. 

For further details, see Wied. p. 261 to end. 



II. DIVINATION, 

Definition. 

Divination is the art of obtaining special information 
from spiritual beings. 

Dj\ E. B. Tylor ' and Dr. F. B. Jevons 2 make a distinc- 
tion between divination due to supernatural agency and 
such as is not, but may be called natural. All divination, 
however, conforms to the definition g^en above. If 
the changes through which the lock of a person's hair 
passes indicate the .varying conditions of the person 
whose lock it is, this is due to the belief actual or implied 
that some superior power deigns to make the former 
phenomena significant of the latter. Or if, to adduce 
Tylor's instance, a tree planted at the birth of a child 
is held by its flourishing or otherwise to reveal the 
course of the child's life, it is because some superior 
intelligence is pleased by the vicissitudes of the tree to 
tell the tale of the human life. u Omens," says W. 
Robertson Smith, M are not blind tokens ; the animals 
know what they tell to man." 3 

1 " Encyc. Brit.," 9 (" Divination "). 

2 Clark's " Bible Dictionary " (« Divination *')- 

3 " Religion of the Semites," p. 424. 



DIVINATION 73 

DlVfNAf ION AND BlBLICAL PROPHECY. 

It is exceedingly difficult, if indeed possible, to indicate 
the boundary line between divination and prophecy; 
In both the same general principle obtains — intercourse 
on the part of man with the spiritual world in order 
to obtain special knowledge. In divination this know- 
ledge is usually got by observing certain omens or signs ; 
but this is by no means always the case, since sometimes 
the beings consulted " possessed " the soothsayer, just 
as spiritualistic mediums claim to be li possessed." The 
diviner and the modern " medium " profess alike to be 
channels through which spiritual beings speak. 1 Divina- 
tion, as practised in this last method, does not differ from 
Biblical prophecy of the lowest kind — that of the ecstatic 
state, as distinguished from the higher species of prophecy 
which, in Riehm f s happy phrase, is (( psychologically 
mediated." 2 

The ■ word " prophecy " is mostly employed of corn^ 
mjunications from God in the Old and New Testament 
sense. Of necessity, therefore, it stands upon higher 
ground than divination in the usual heathen sense of 
the word. But the ordinary theological distinction is : 
unjust and opposed to Semitic etymology. 3 When the 
Israelites resorted to magic and divination, 4 it was in 
the belief that Yah we sanctioned and controlled these 
practices and accepted them as. legitimate. The diviner 
among Arabs, Greeks, and Romans was often as sincere 
as Isaiah or Jeremiah, and who will deny that to him, as 

* See Dr. Granger's " Worship of the Romans,"*p. 174. 

* "Messianic Prophecy," p. 45 et passim. 

3 See Hofmann's " Weissagung und Erfiillung," i. p. 12. 
ICf. Deut, xviii. io, 11. 



74 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 1 

well as to the Old Testament seer, God spake in very 
truth ? l Belief in the special mission and authority of 
the Israelitish prophet does not carry with it the 
implication that the diviners or prophets of other nations 
and of other religions were impostors. W. Robertson 
Smith 2 and others 3 have shown that the religion of the 
Old Testament has many elements which are common 
to other Semitic religions, and even to non-Semitic 
religions. 

Methods. 

There were among the ancient Greeks, Romans, Arabs> 
etc., modes of divining which were apparently unknown 
to the Hebrews of the Old Testament : e.g. by observa-* 
tion of the flights and cries of birds, inspection of the 
entrails of animals, etc. Dr. Granger's " Worship of the 
Romans," p. 173 fif. (Freytag, " Einleitung," p. 159 ff.) 

Yet there are many signs or omens mentioned in the 
Old Testament which are either similar to or identical 
with those made use of among other nations. -• 

1. Belomancy was practised among the Arabs, 4 and 
also among the Chaldeans. 5 The Israelites were 
also sometimes addicted to this ; the monotheistic 
prophets indeed forbade it, but it probably existed 
uncondemned in earlier times. The " wood " and " staff " 
in Hosea iv. 12, stand for the same thing, the "first 
denoting the material, and the second the form, into 

1 See Briggs* " Messianic Prophecy," p. 4 f. Cf. per contra, Orelli, 
11 Old Testament Prophecy," p. 24. 

2 H Religion of the Semites." 

3 See Cobb's "Origenes Judaic* "; Schultz's "Old Tcstamcit 
Theology," i. p. 250 fT. 

4 Wellhausen, " Reste," 132. 

5 Lenormant, " La Divination," chs. ii. and iv. Sayce, "T. S. Bibl. 
Arch.," iii. 145. 



DIVINATION 75 

which it was made. There is no doubt that we are to 
understand the same kind of divination as that practised 
by the Babylonian king. 1 

2. The Babylonian king is represented in the Ezekiel 
passage just quoted as looking at the liver, that is the 
liver of an animal offered in sacrifice, with a view, to 
divination. Animals were often sacrificed in order to 
propitiate the god or gods consulted, so that the special 
intimations sought might be granted. , We have an 
example of this in the history of Balaam, Num. xxiii. 
I, 2, 14* 

3.' t( Sortilege n or divination by lot was a very common 
method of .divining among the Arabs 3 and Romans 4 
The " Urim and Thummim " were simply two stones 
puf into the pocket attached to the high priest r s ephod ; 
on them were written some such words as " yes " and 
" no/' Whichever stone was taken out, the. alternative; 
word, upon it was looked upon as the divine decision. ! 
Probably whenever we have the phrase 3, bitU) ( u to -\ 
inquire of," see 1 Sam. xiv. 37, xxiii. 2, etc.), we] 
are to understand the appeal to the priest made by 
^Urim and Thummim. n Cf. Jonah i. 7 ff., where we 
read that the mariners cast lots to find out on account 

i' 

of whom the storm was. No condemnation is expressed 
in the Biblical narrative. 

4. We have other signs recognized in the Old Testa- 
ment, as in Judges vi. 36 (Gideon's fleece), and in 1 Sam. 
xiv. 8 ff. (Jonathan decides whether or not he is to 



1 See Ezek. xxi. 23 ff,, where we read of arrows being used. Cf. the 
two Greek words fieAonavrda and ^ajSSojtcwTeia. 

2 Well. "Reste," p. 133. 

3 Well. "Reste," ii. 134 f. 

4 Smith, "Diet, of Antiq.," art. "Sortes^ 



7< MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

attack the Philistines by the words which he may happen 
to hear them speak). 

5. Of astrological beliefs and practices the early 
Israelites seem to have been quite ignorant. In the Old 
Testament there is no passage older than the Exile that 
shows acquaintance with such beliefs and practices. 
Deutero-Isaiah (xlvii. 13) has these words : " Thou art 
wearied in the multitude of thy counsels ; let now the 
astrologers, 1 the stargazers, the monthly prognosticated, 
stand up and save thee from the things that shall come 
.upon thee." 

In Jeremiah x. 3 the people are warned against the 
way of the heathen, lest they be terrified by signs in 
the sky, as were the Assyrians and Babylonians. The 
prophet's words are these: "Thus saith Yahwe, learn 
not the \vay of the nations and be not dismayed at the 
signs of heaven : for the nations are dismayed at them." 
The whole section (x. 1 — 16) of which this forms a part, 
is probably the work of the Redactor of Jeremiah (so 
Cheyne, Pulpit Commentary), and was addressed to Israel 
in Babylon, warning them against the idolatrous practices 
carried on around them* 

These two Exilic passages support the belief that it was 
during the residence in Babylon that the Hebrews came 
for the first time into contact with astrological usages. 
When we come to 'the Book of Daniel astrology is 
countenanced. The Book was written in the first half 
of the second century B.C., and reflects the prevailing 
thought of the Palestinian Jews at the time of its com- 
position. Daniel — the ideal Jew — is made head of the wise 

1 0*0$ >- Qn, ''divider* of the heavens ;" LXX. acrpo\6yoi rod 
ovpavov. 



DIVINATION' 77 

'men ! iti Babylon (ii. 48), i.e. of all the diviners, 
whether or not they divine by stars. In iv. 6 we are 
told that he was made chief of the "learned ones 1 * 3 
(khartummayya), a term which, like "wise men," in- 
cludes all the diviners and magicians, 3 That astrologers 
are embraced appears from v. 11, where this generic 
terflu stands first, the other words following by way of 
explanation. 

Note also the approval with which, in Matt, iu, the 
conduct of the -wise men, who were guided by celestial 
omens, is regarded. 

6. The most important of all the modes of divination 
'which link the Hebrews with other nations is that by 
dreams. In fact, dream divination among the Hebrews 
differs hardly if at all from that which obtained among 
the Greeks and other nations of antiquity. It is supposed 
that the dream is introduced from outwards into the human 
soul in order to convey some intimation. Jacob may have 
sufficient reason for making good his escape from Laban, 
but he will not take the decisive step without a direct 
^revelation, which revelation comes to him in a dream 
^Gen. xxxi. 10 — 13). His resolution becomes objective 
as a dream. In other cases the divine communication is 
such as exceeds the power of human reason to discover ; 
: nstances are the dreams of Abimelech (Gen, xx, 3, 6, 7), 
and especially those of Joseph (Gen. xxxvii. 5, xl. 3, 
xli. 1 f.). Other noteworthy instances of diviilely seiic 
dreams are Gen. xxviii. 12 ff., xxi. 24 ; Judges vii. 13 ; 
1 Kings iii. 5 f. ; Matt. i. 20, ii. 12 ff., xxvii. 19. E 
is specially fond of relating dreams. 

The author of the speeches of Elihu also attaches 

1 myarr 2 Njasrin * 3 supra, P . 42 5] 






7$ MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

great importance to dreams as a channel of divine 
communications (Job xxxii. 14-^16). It would seem 
that among many other resuscitations of primitive beliefs 
that of the symbolic character of dreams must be 
reckoned (cf. the dream-visions of Enoch, chs. 83 — 90, 
and the dreams in the Book of Daniel, also Josephus, 
B. J. ii. 7,4; iii. 8, 13); 

Naturally enough in the decay of genuine prophecy 
men looked about for artificial means of seeing future 
events. But the great prophets never refer to their 
dreams, and it is even a question how far all the visions 
of which they speak are to be taken literally. 

Hebrew Terms used in Connection with Divination; 

The words which have to do with necromancy will 
be dealt with last of all, as they relate to divination by 
means of consultation with the dead. 

(1) DD£ (qesem) is the first and most important word 
to be considered. Though joining issue with Drs. 
W. R. Smith and Wellhausen as to its primary sense, 
there is no denying the fact that the connotation of the 
word is mostly got from divination. I It is, in fact, the 
most general word for divination, and probably includes 
the rest. In Deut. xviii. 10 it stands before ]3tyO (me- 
l onen) and *)l#3p (mekashshef), because including them, 
though W. R. Smith says it has the distinct sense of 
obtaining an oracle by drawing lots. In Ezek. xxi. 26' 
the word means casting lots by means of arrows, or 
perhaps mere rods. But in 1 Sam. xxviii. 8, Saul is made 
to ask the Witch of Endor to divine ODIDp; Qeri, by an 
over-refinement reads VpDp) for him by means of the 



DIVINATION 79 

It has been before remarked that the LXX. translators 
use for Dplp (qosem) the quite general word fxdvns. 

In Hosea iv. 12 we seem to read of divination by 
arrows or rods, \$ apparently meaning the material, and 
b$ft the form. Certainly those are wrong who see in 
W the mt^N, for the reference is to some mode of ob- 
taining an oracle, and not to worship. 1 It is almost 
certain tha* rabdomancy or belomancy is what Hosea 
refers to, and what Ezekiel (xxi. 21 ff.) describes. If, 
as seems likely, DDp is a general word, it would of course 
include the reference in Hosea. Taking it in its nar- 
rower sense, which R. Smith thinks original, it would 
be identical with what Hosea speaks of. 

(2) ptyO (me'onen). Opinions differ widely as to the 
etymology and exact import of this word. (See Delitzsch 
£>n Isa. ii. 6.) 

(i.) It has been said to be poel of a root py having 

the same meaning as p3 and ]J3 (tf) " to cover." The 
"D would then be " one who practises hidden or occult 
arts." But this meaning of ]ty has no support in actual 

usage. 

(ii.) More frequently and more plausibly it has been 
regarded as a denominative from py " cloud"; ptyp 
(or in its apocopated form ]jfy) denoting one of two 
alternatives: either (a) one who observes the clouds 
with a view to obtaining an oracle. The ancients, we 
know, divined from the stars (see Daniel), the lightning 
(Iliad, ii. 353 ; Cicero, De Divin., i. 18 ; Pliny, ii. 43, 53), 
and also from the shapes made by the ever-shifting clouds 
(Joseph., Wars, vi. 5, 3). Or (b) the ]}tyO may be one 

1 Wellh. "Die Klein. Proph.," p. xo8 f. 



8q MAGIC, DIVINATION, AJsfD DEMONOLOGtf 

who brings clouds and storms (cf. Gen. ix. 14, " When I 
cloud clouds/* i.e. bring clouds). That storms were 
believed to be raised by incantation is quite certain. 1 

The acceptation of this etymology and explanation 
would cause the word to rank With magical terms, and 
not with terms for divination. But there is nothing in 
the passages where the word is found to suggest that 
IJltyD has anything to do with the sky ; and . it tells 
against it that the Hebrews seemed never greatly in 
danger of believing in astrology or practising it. 

(iii.) By others "0 has been made a denominative from 
}^, and so fjty is made to signify " to glance upon, to 
smite (with the evil eye)." This also would make the 
term a magical one. 

But there is no other instance of such a form from 
a r y nbun ; and the Targum rejects this, for it renders 
by ]2g " to practise sorcery," unless, indeed, it only 
transcribes the Hebrew word. 

The LXX. represents the verb by olwtfcaOai, as in 
Num. xxiv. 1 it translates D*#TO by olwoL But this 
says little, as 01W09, though meaning strictly "a* lone 
flying bird," came to be used among the Greeks for any 
omen. Examples of the practice of divining from the 
flight of birds are to be found in primitive Arabia. 2 

The word ljltyD is usually translated by " observers", 
(Judges ix. 37, A.V. marg. " regarders ") of times, A.V./ 
or " augurs/' R.V. (Deut. xviii. 10, 14 ; Lev. xix. 26 ; 
2 Ki. xxi. 6). In Isa. ii. 6 and Micah v. 12, A.V, and 
R.V. " soothsayers " (so also Jer. £xvii.' 9, R.V., where 

1 See Bernstein's "Syriac Chrestornathy," p. Ill* line 9 f., and 
WustenfelcTs " Kaswini," i. p. 221, line 10 n. 
* See Wellh. Reste, p. 202 f. 



DJVINATION 8f 

A.V. has " enchanter "). Once the fern. sing, form of the 
word is Englished (both versions) by sorceress. An oak 
near Shechem, famotis in divination, bears the name 
" Oak of Meo'nim " (Jud. ix. 37). 

W. R. Smith follows Ewald 1 in tracing the word to 
the Semitic radix that exists in the Arabic <^ (ghanna), 
to emit a hoarse, nasal sound. The 7 D they regard as 
one who speaks in a whispering, low tone. 

In favom of the last explanation is the fact that low, 
nasal speaking attaches to several 6ther terms used for 
magic and divination. 

Apart from Fleischer's derivation of *]t03 from <JU*^ 2 
low, subdued speaking is implied in the Greek yorjrr^ 
(see p. 71) and cVa0cu>, and in Isa. viii. 19 the /VQU* 
and the D\$T are called whisperers (D N 2j£3^£n), while 
in Isa, xxix. 4 it is said of Ariel, M And thou shalt be 
brought down . . . and thy speech shall be low, out of 
the dust, and thy voice shall be as an '6b (2i^) : and thy 
speech shall whisper (^S!^ JV) out °f the ground;" 

3. ttfm. The vferb'ttfTO is translated in the LXX. 
oiiovL&fiatj which means, first to take omens from the 
flight and screams of birds, and then generally to forecast. 

The Peshito version of Lev. xix. 26 adds to {Z&^l 

(Heb. 1#njr\) the words jaas ZcuaO,. "by winged 

creatures " as an explanation, but this is due to LXX. 
influence. 

In the Old Testament this mode of divination was' 
practised on heights, as by Balaam, Num. xxiii. 3 \ 
pouring water into a cup was one of the ways by which 

1 "Die Lehre der Bibd von pott," i. 234} cf. also Driver oti 
Deut- xviii. 10. 2 Supra % p. 48. 



82 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

it was done, as by Joseph, Gen, xliv/57 15. As regards 
the last, the practice referred to ..was that of putting 
water into a cup made of gold or of some other material. 
Then some precious stone was thrown in ; the rings 
formed on the surface were believed to predict the future. 
This is called in Greek KvXiKojjLavrtLa or vSpo/jLavraa 
(English, hydromancy). It was much practised in Egypt. 
(See authorities quoted by Dillman in loco.) For a 
parallel French superstition, see J. B. Thiers, " Traite 
des Superstitions/' Paris, 1697, i. p.\ 187 ff. 

Among the Arameans, omens of the D^TO kinds were 
taken from the flight and criesrof birds, from cries of beasts, 
from the conduct of fire, atmospheric changes — rain, etc. — 
and from the heavenly bodies. W. R. Smith l concludes, 
therefore, that this word includes all omens from natural 
signs. But he is too resolved to make words in Deut. xviii. 
10, 11 have each a distinct sense. The author of Deut. 
and the people he wrote for were far from having that; 
feeling of exactness which animates modern scholars. 

In my treatment of liillb I have already given my 
opinion' that both itfpb and ltfTW are denominatives from 
the noun V)11) (? and ] interchanging). 

Omens were certainly taken from the movements of 
serpents in early times. 2 Now just as in Greek oWo?, ! 
from denoting an omen from the flight of birds, came to 
mean any kind of omen, so ttfnj acquired from the 
narrow sense* of divining from serpents, that of divining 
from any sign (so Boch, Hiero, i. 20 — 21). 

It is not at all impossible that the verb— still regarded 
as a denominative — means to hiss as a serpent, then to 
whisper. This would connect it with the many other 

} Jour. Phil. xiv.;ii4 f. J Sec Baud. " Studien," i. 157 ff. 



DIVINATION 83 

magical and divinatory words which have such a connota- 
tion. 1 It would-also confirm my belief that the magical 
is the priAary signification of both #r6 (iakhash) and 
tt>na (nakhash).' 

4. ]H?J) (gazerin) (emphatic form NJ^tJ)) occurs in &e 
sense of diviner in Aramaic only, and nowhere except in 
the Book of Daniel (ii. 27, iv. 4 [Eng. iv. 7], v, 7, 1 1, E. W. 
soothsayers). The verb meatis " to cut, to determine " (cf. 
W. R. Smith's derivation of DDp [qasam] M to decide" from 
first meaning " to cut") ; JT1T3 (gazera) "decree" also 
occurs lathis book. The LXX. transcribes THW (gazerin) 
without attempting to translate. As these diviners are 
placed iiji Babylon, it is probable that astrologers are 
meant, though this is uncertain, perhaps the word is to 
be understood like DDp (qesem), in a general sense. The 
Arabic root y^ (gazara) means to slaughter, and it may 
be that the yyz originally offered a sacrifice in connec* 
tion with their art. ' The Vulgate is probably wrong in 
rendering by ".hajiuspices"; such omens are but once 
spoken of in the Bible (Ezek. xxi. 21)— a singular fact 
when one remembers how they bulk in other religions. 
In this one mention of this mode of divination it is a 
Babylonian, not a Hebrew practice. 

5. *)#Ni (ashshaf) (Aram. *)#&, ashaf) occurs in the 
Hebrew (i. 20, ii. 2) and Aramaic part (ii. 10) of Daniel, 
and nowhere else. As to its etymology, Praetorius, Fried. 
Delitzsch, 2 and Tallq. 3 agree that it is a Babylonian loan- 
word meaning magician, and especially exorcist. Th$ 
verb in Assyrian is asipu, the noun agent being essipu. 
Delitzsch gives asapu and asipu (without dag.) respectively. 

i See supra 81 and often. 3 " Proleg.," p. 141. 

3 "Assyr. Besch.," p. 20 and p. 158. 



84 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

Accepting this, and remembering that the Book of 
Daniel, though written in Palestine about the middle of 
the second century B.C., is yet accommodated to the 
mode of thought and expression prevalent in Babylon, 
there is no good reason for doubting that the Hebrew 
and Aramaic word in Daniel has the same meaning as 
the Babylonian. 

The LXX. renders P3.$N (ashshaphin) by fidyoi } 
which to the Greek translators probably meant the 
same as the Assyrian word just given. Bevan (Com. 
on Daniel) is inclined to think that syite*, 1U and other 
terms found in " Daniel " were employed interchange- 
ably, a supposition which is very unlikely to be correct. 

6. D^TtiG (kasdaim). This word stands correctly for 
the inhabitants of Babylon and its dependencies. It has 
this meaning from the establishment of the Neo- 
Babylonian Kingdom (see Jer. iii. 4, xxxii. 45; Hab. i. 6; 
Ezek. xxiii. 14, 15 ; Isa. xxiii. 13 ; xlviii. 14). 

But in the Book of Daniel 1 the word seems to be 
synonymous with the caste of wise men. This sense 
the word got after the destruction of the Babylonian 
empire, and it is found in classical writers, to whom the 
only Chaldeans known were those belonging to this 
caste. 

7. 13 (Gad) and \M3 (Meni). These are names of 
deities that were consulted with the view of securing a 
prosperous future. They were believed to be able to 
shape and to predict the future, so that they have a sig- 
nificance for divination ; and as both are named in the 
Old Testament, it is well to take some notice of them. 

In Gen.xxx. 11 the Qeri reads correctly 1J) K2, "good 

l v i. 4 ; ii> 10; v. 7, 11. 



i 



DIVINATION 5TS 

luck comes " ; so, too, the Pesh. and Targum. The 
LXX. (cV rvxri) and Vulgate (feliciter) follow the Kethib. 
In Isa. lxv. ii the word stands unquestionably for the 
Babylonian god of good fortune, identified with Bel, and 
later with the planet Jupiter. We can trace the name 
in 13 b%3 (Josh. xi. ij) and in the Phoen. proper names 

nyUi DM12. 1 Bar Hebraeus uses )i^ (gadda) in the 
sense of gCod luck. 

^D (Meni), mentioned in the same Isaiah passage, is 
another Babylonian deity, which had also to do with 
men's destiny. The author of the paragraph evidently 
accepts the derivation from nSS (minna) " to distribute, 

allot" 

The LXX. translate by rvxy, as they do !3 (gad) in 
the Genesis passage. It is singular that the Greek word 
tvxv stands for the Egyptian goddess Isis, which last is 
likewise the goddess of good luck. Perhaps Istar, the 
Babylonian Isis, or moon god, is meant. Delitzsch 
(Franz) in his commentary, in loco, has surely gone wrong 
in identifying Meni with the Arabian Manat, one of ths. 
three principal pre-Islamic deities. 

Biblical Necromancy. 

There remain to be considered terms or expressions 
which are used in the Old Testament to describe 
divination by consulting the dead. Three designations, 
fall to be noticed, all of them found in Deut. xviii, 11. 

(i) We shall begin with that which occurs last in the 
verse, viz. 0\HDn ?H &T? (one who inquires with [from] 
the dead) rendered by the A.V. and R.V. necro?nancer. 

1 See Eutimg, "Sechs Phonbische Inschriften aus Idalion," 1873, p. 14, 



&6 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DfiMONOLOGY 

Isa. viii. 19 makes it clear that this is a general description 
embracing the next two words to be considered. It is 
separately mentioned indeed, but the conjunction "waw'* 
with which it is introduced is simply the explanatory 
u waw," answering to the Greek epexegetic kclI. (See 
.examples of this u;e of n wau n in Ges. Buhl, p. 197a, b.) 

This phrase embraces the Ti'yT (yiddVni), and 2W 
(*6b), and other kinds of necromancy. (So Driver on 
Deut. xyiii. 11.) 

(2) 21N biW (sho'el *6b) one who consults an 'ob. 
The word 'ob is generally found with yidd e 'oni. Like 
the last Word, '6b, from meaning the spirit of a departed 
one, <;ame to stand for the person who possessed such a 
spirit, and divines by its aid. The full phrase 2^H rby2L 
(the possessor of an '6b) is found in 1 Sam. xxviii. 7, 
.where the " Witch of Endor " is so described. 

The LXX. explains the word by iyyacrTpafivOos, which^ 
means ventriloquist, i.e. one who made people believe- 
that a ghost spoke through him by throwing his voice' 
into the ground, where the spirit was supposed to be. 
This is the explanation of the phenomenon adopted by 
Lenormant, 1 Renan, 2 and by others. But the writer of 
Samuel, and other Biblical writers who speak of this species 
of divination, evidently regard it as really what it was 
claimed to be. Lev. xx. 27 i§.the only possible exception.' 

The etymology of the word is very uncertain. Passing 
by minor suggestions, the field seems to be held by two 
principal views. First, it has been traced to a root; 
which means to return, which "is found in the Arabic 
vfssvjt (aba=awaba). The word would in that case' 

1 "La Divination, " p. 161 rT. 

2 " History of People of Israel/' i. 347. 



DIVINATION #7 

mean the same as the French revenant, one who returns, 
i.e. the spirit who comes back. This derivation is 
defended by Stade (Gesch. Isr t i. p. 504), by Hitzig and 1 
Konig (on Is. viii. 19), and by Schwally {Das Leben nac/v 
dem Tode, p. 69) ; although now generally abandoned, it 
is at least as likely to be right as any other. Dr. Van' 
Hoonecker {Expository Times, ix. 157 ff.) objects that in 
Deut. xviy. 11 the '6b is distinguished from the dead 
(metim) ; but if the latter clause of the verse is simply a 
generalization of the two foregoing clauses, this objection 
falls to the ground. 

The commonest derivation is that which connects the 
word with '6b, "a bottle/' literally something hollow. A 

similar word in Arabic &\> (wa'ba) means a hole in a rock, 
a large and deep pit, i.e. as with bottle, something hollow. 
Assuming the fundamental idea of hollowness to be in 
the word, many explanations have been suggested as 
arising out of it. I note two as being probably nearest 
the truth. 

(1) Bottcher, 1 Kautsch, 2 and Dillmann 3 hold that the 
spirit is called '6b on account of the hollow tone of the 
voice ; such a tone as might be expected to issue from 
an empty place. Other terms for practising magic and 
divination lend some support to this view. 4 

(2) The idea of hollowness has been held to apply in 
the first place to the cave or opening in the ground out 
of which the spirit speaks. Among the Greeks and 
Romans, oracles depending on necromancy were situated 
among large deep caverns which were supposed to 
cpipmunicate with the spirit world, (cf. the Arabian 

1 "De Inferis," p. ioi? 2 Riehm, " Totenbesch." 

3 On Lev. x. 131. 4 Supra % 81, 83, etc. 



8S MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

"Ahl al-ard" or earth-folk). W. R. Smith 1 was of 
opinion that divination by the '6b was connected with 
this superstition. Then just as '6b and yidd c< oni, from 
meaning spirit, came to stand for the person in whom 
the spirit dwelt, so by a similar metonymy — contained 
for container and vice versa— the hollow cavern came to 
be used for the spirit that spoke out of it. 

3. OJn* (yidd e< oni). The English word wizard, by 
which this Hebrew term is rendered, means " one very 
wise/' and agrees with the LXX. (yi/cdcrr^s), Syriac (puOf*, 

yaddu'a), Arabic (^Vs 'arraf), and with Ewald's ren- 
dering " Viel-wisserisch." 

Like '6b, so also yidd e 'oni, means in the first instance 
the spirit of a deceased person ; then it came to mean 
him or her that divines by such a spirit. W. R. Smith, 2 
followed by Driver (on Deut. xviii. 11), distinguishes 
the two terms thus : — 

Yidd e{ oni is a familiar spirit, one known to him that 
consults it. The '6b is any ghost that is called up from 
the grave to answer questions put to it (cf. 1 Sam. xxviii). 
The yidd c< oni speaks through a personal medium : that 
is, through the person whom it possesses. The '6b 
speaks directly, as, for example, out of the grave (cf. 
1 Sam. xxviii). Rashi (on Deut. xviii. 11) says that 
yidd e 'ooi differs from 21tf by2 (ba ( al 'Sb) in that he 
held in his mouth a bone, which uttered the oracle. It 
is hard to prove these distinctions to be either right or 
wrong, the data for forming a judgment are so slight. 

But is it quite certain that the words are to be held as 
standing for distinct things ? Why may we not have in 
them different aspects of the same spirit ? So regarded, 

1 M Rel. Sem./' p. Jg&- 2 Journ. Phi!, xiv. 127. 



DIVINATION $9 

*6b would convey the notion that the spirit has returned 
from the other World, while yidd e 'oni would suggest that 
the spirit so returned is knowing,, and therefore able to 
answer the questions of the inquirer. The fact that in 
all the eleven instances of its occurrence yidd c 'oni in- 
variably follows '6b, is in favour of its being a mere 
interpretation. 'Ob, on the other hand/ is often found 
by itself (i Sam. xxviii. 7, 8; 1 Chron. x. 3, etc.). I have 
already said that the expression at the end of Deut. 
xviii. 11 ("one who seeks unto the dead w ) is merely a 
generalized formula for the two foregoing characters. 
Now it is probable that these two characters are at 
bottom one, the " and " joining '6b and yidd e 'oni in the 
way of a hendiadys : " he who seeks a departed spirit 
that is knowing." The remaining part of the verse is 
then simply a repetition in different words of the same 
thought. This is in complete harmony with the usages 
of Hebrew parallelism. The whole compound expression 
might be rendered as follows : " He who inquires of the 
departed spirit that is knowing, even he who seeks unto 
the dead."' 

Though condemned in the Old Testament, 1 necro- 
mancy held its own among the Israelites till a late period, 
Yahwism was opposed to both witchcraft and necro- 
mancy, yet the influence of habit and of intercourse with 
people around was too strong to be wholly overcome. 2 
Winer 3 shows that in the ancient world, divination by 
calling back the spirits of the dead was very widespread 
among the Greeks, Romans, and other ancient nations. 
See the references he gives. 



1 See I Sam. xxviii. 7 ft. ; Isa. viii. 19 ; cf. Lev. xix. 31,. xx. 6, 27 ; 
Deut. xviii. II. 2 Schultz, ii. 322. 3 " Totenbeseh." 



r 



90 magic, divination, and dem0n0l0gy 

Divination in Post-Biblical Judaism. 

In the main the Talmud occupies the Old Testament 
antagonistic position regarding magic and divination. 1 
Yet it is not wholly, and at times not at all, opposed to 
soothsaying; e.g. &hullin, 95b : - tth . . . #PU VNttJ *3 ty *)» 
J^D "If (regarding a matter that is spoken of) there is 
no divination " itfni etc. Here there is not a' syllable 
I of condemnation about the ^TO, which is in the Old 
\Testament uniformly reprobated. In Sanhed., 101a, even 
DH# may be consulted if it is not the Sabbath. " On 
the Sabbath one may not put question to the DHttf " 
t (i.e. on other days this may be done). 

It should be remembered, however, that the Talmud 
is not one work composed by one author, and thus 
reflecting one mind. It is rather a repository of Jewish 
■ thought and folk-lore from the third to the seventh or 
; eighth century of our era ; as such it is valuable, only 
•we must not in it look for consistency. 

Divination among the Arabs. 

Our principal sources of information on this subject 
are the works by Freytag 2 and Wellhausen 3 already 
named, and the authorities which they cite ; these last 
being mainly Arabic poetry, epic and lyrical. 

There were both male and female fortune-tellers 

6 G" " 

among the Arabs of the olden time, ^^ and &atf being 
the respective terms employed. There can be no doubt 

c - 

that {$*>\S is identical with Heb. 1H3, and that in both the 

2 Sec Khullin, 7b 5 Sanhed., 67b. 2 " Einleitung." 

3 "Reste." 



1 



DIVINATION /9I 

'magician of priest and the soothsayer were joined. 
w^U properly door-keeper (i.e. one who had charge of 
the temple entrance) and y^l* (one who ministered at 
the qaaba) were the words used for the priests, a'nd^vhen 
this office was rigidly separated from the other, the 
distinction consisted in the fact that the priesthood was 
hereditary and was exercised at the temple, while the 
office of soothsayer opened itself to anyone qualified^ by ' 
special inspiration to discharge it. 1 

As to the vexed question of the etymology of y&\S and 
)tl'3 I must content myself by a reference to the authors 
ties named by Gesenius-Buhl. 

The Arab soothsayer was called also }W or ftp. (which 
is the same root as the Hebrew Pith), though the latter 
is specially used of an astrologer, and the former pf one. 
who divines from moles on the face and the like. 

Other words are <-*fts (pi. aiU), which means especially 
.weather prophets and palmists, 2 and CAf literally a 

knowing one (the form JU* denoting office or occupation). 

The communications of the Arab soothsayers were 
given in rhythmical form, which, however, was largely 
due to the character of the language they spoke in. 

Among well-known soothsayers the following are 
named by either Freytag 3 or Wellhausen 4 : — Satbih, of 
the tribe of Dsib; Shiqq of Bagila; Aus b. Rabi'a; Al- 
Khims of Taghlib ; Amru b. Algu'aid; Ibn Kajad of 
Medina, while Tsuraifa and Sagah were women. 

1 See We]lh7 v< Reste7 ,v p. 134, and W. R. Smith, lourn. of" Phil., 
xiii. p. 278. 

2 See Sharastani's "Book of Religions and Philosophical Sects," ed. 
Cureton, ii. p. 437. 3 p> ISJr# 4 « R este ,» p . j 3 e f. 



92 magic, divination, aft£> demonology 

Modes of Divination. 

These Arab soothsayers took omens from the flight of 
birds, from writing made on the ground, from the 
human body — especially the face, from the lines on the 
hand (palmistry), and by watchin'g the descent of balls 
which had been thrown into the air. For technical 
words and expressions for these see Freytag. 1 

Presages. 

There were certain phenomena which were interpreted 
as signs of either good or evil. The approach of a raven 
was an intimation that friends were to be separated. 
Hence the proverb : ^aA <~>\f ($>* (*W, M Unluckier than 
the raven of separation." 

The bird called J^ (the green woodpecker probably) 
was also looked upon as presaging evil (^)>as contrasted 
with J^» which was a good omen. 

Islam and Divination. 

It has already been stated 3 that although Mohammed 
condemned divination, he was himself too superstitious 
to entirely dispense with it. Yet his general attitude 
towards it was hostile. 

Mu'awiyah ibn Hakam relates that he asked the 
Prophet if it were right to consult fortune-tellers about 
future events, and he replied, J 4 Since you have em- 
braced Islam you must not consult them." 3 

Oat'an ibn Qabisah says : " The Prophet forbade 

1 p. 158 f. 2 Sufra, p. 22. v 3 Hughes, p. 130a. 



DIVINATION 93 

taking omens from the running of animals, the flight of 
birds, and from throwing pebbles, which were (was) done 
by the idolaters of Arabia." * 

For some time after Mohammed's death many arose 
in Islam who claimed in the manner of the ^^ to 
forecast the future. But their number soon declined, 
owing mostly oto the acceptance of complete mono- 
theism, tte authority of the Quran and the traditions 
of the Prophet. 

The Moslem doctors say that up to the time of Jesus 
the Jinns had liberty to enter any of the seveii heavens. 
With His birth they were excluded from three of them. 
Mohammed's birth caused them to be shut out of the 
remaining four. Yet even afterwards they continued to 
ascend the boundaries of the first heaven, and could hear 
the angels converse of God's decrees. In this way they 
obtained a knowledge of the future, which under certain 
conditions they imparted to men. 

Babylonian and Assyrian Divination. 

The diviner among these peoples was called bdru } seer, 
from barii to see. Compare with this the Kebreiy 
HNH and the more poetical n?fh Biblical terms for 
u prophet," both denoting literally " seer." The office 
of diviner among the Babylonians and Assyrians was 
called barutu ) a word denoting literally the il act of 
seeing," cf. the corresponding abstract Hebrew term 
JDtrr. The barii, like the eYsepu, belonged to a priestly 
caste, his special function being that of prognostication. 
The signs or omens were of the kind common among 

1 Mishkat, Book xxi. 2, quoted by Hughes, p. 114b. 



) 

1 



94 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

Greeks, Romans, Arabs, etc.; full descriptions of these 
are found on the clay tablets discovered among the 
ruins of Nineveh. These tablets formed part of the. 
library of Assurbanipal, the last of the Assyrian kings. 
Among these omens may be mentioned the cries and 
flight of birds, the movements of animals, dreams, and,' 
especially, the position and motions of the heavenly 
bodies. Astrology is generally believed to have taken- 
its rise among the Babylonians. However uncertain' 
this may be, its prevalence in Babylon from the earliest 
historical times is not to be questioned. Next in 
importance to observation of the heavenly bodies,' 
dreams were consulted by the baru. Assyrian kings and 
generals were often guided in their policy by divination. 
We have an instructive example in Ezek. xxi., where 
King Esarhaddon takes omens from the fall of arrows 
and from the liver of animals offered in sacrifice. For 
further and fuller details, see Lenormant's " La Divina- 
tion," etc., and A. Bouche Leclerq's " Histoire de la 
Divination dans l'Antiquite." 

Egyptian Divination. 

The newest book discussing divination as it prevailed 
among the Egyptians is Wiedemann's already referred 
to. I can do no more here than refer to p. 36 1 ff. of this 
work for a treatment of the subject) 



III. DEMONOLOGY. 

The belief in evil spirits is universal. As to its origin, 
I must refer to remarks made at the outset. 1 

Polyanimism — if the word is to be tolerated — is the 
precursor of polytheism, as this last is itself the precursor 
of dualism in the first instance and then of monotheism. 
In all this we have in action the scientific and philo- 
sophic principles of reducing the many to the one. 

As showing how widespread the belief in evil spirits 
isj I may name the following works (see full titles at the 
commencement— Literature) : Among the Chinese, 
DennysandNevius; among the Dravidians, etc., in India, 
Caldwell ; among the Arabs, Freytag's u Einleitung " 
and Wellhausen's ." Reste " ; among the Singalese, see 
Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 
1865-6, " Demon Possession." Dr.RoskofTs "Geschichte 
des Teufels " gives a mass of information as to the 
prevalence among all peoples of dualism in religion, 

Demonology in the Old Testament. 

Notwithstanding the fact that the Old Testament as a 
whole stands opposed to the "belief in evil spirits, yet 

1 See supra, p. 8 fT. ■ It is doubtful, and even more than doubtful, 
whether in the strict sense devil-worship exists or has ever existed. 
What is so called, is probably nothing more than prayer and sacrifices 
to well-disposed spiritual beings with the view of securing the help of 
these last against spiritual beings which are malicious. 



96 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DfiMONOLOGY 

there are many indications and survivals throughout the 
Old Testament of this superstition. 

Firstly, many demons are referred to by name: DH#, 
in Deut. xxxii. 17, and in Ps. cvi. 37 are demons; DH^ttf, 
literally, " hairy ones," are goat-like demons which dwelt 
in the wilderness, 1 Isa. xiii. 21 ; xxxiv. 14, etc. 

/t^TJ/*, Lev. xvi. 8, 10, 26, is a demon that had its 
home in the wilderness, though both Mishna and 
Gemara explain it as a steep rock over which the goat 
wa$ hurled, 2 

JVb'b (Assyrian Lelitu,' also masc. Lelu) was a night 
ghost (H76* or is this a mere popular etymology ?) or 
demon, Isa. xxxiv. 14, 4/* 

The D^&En are spirits who dwelt especially in Sheol. 
but they also roam about on the earth, where they once 
lived.* 

Dp&g in Prov. xxx, 15, rendered by the LXX. $U\\^ 

Vulg. sanguisuga, and in t\\% English versions u horse- 
leach, " is probably a vampire or blood-sucking demon* 
Thus Muhlau de Prov, Aquri, 42 IT., and Wellhausen 
"Reste," 149. 

In Arabic the word for horse-leach is <3^, while ^y*, 
formed from the same root " to hang," means the kind 
of Jinn called Ghoul (J^)* 

Reference has been more than once made to the 
serpent as a demon. In Ps. lviii. 5, ]JH3 seems to be 

1 See W. R. Smith, "Rel. Seat.," p. 423 ; Wellh., Reste, p. 151 i. 
Cf. the Teutonic representation of the Devil as a he-goat (Grimm, 
p. 095). 2 j oe i it p . 63# 

3 See Griinbaum, Z.D.M.G., xxxi., p. 250, f: Baethgen's "Sindban," 
p. 8 f. ; Wellh., Reste, p. 150 ; W. R. Smith, " Rei. Sem., J> p. 423 ; 
and Cheyne on Isa. xxxiv. 14. 

4 Wellh., Reste, p. 150, and his " Israel, und Jud. Gescli.," p. 99. 



DEMONOLOGY 97 

regarded as an evil spirit against whom binding charms 
are applied. 

In the Talmud 1 and by Rashi, 2 the Itftf ^3, is called a 
Pi thorn (DWS), one who has his head resting on his 
breast between his two shoulders, and utters his oracle 
from his armpits ; or, probably, simply with hands raised 
and his head lying between both armpits. The word is 
surely fror?. the Biblical ]/}3, " adder," and is connected 
with* the Greek wSOw, which means first a serpent, then 
a soothsayer. The Talmudic DVV3 would appear to be 
-one that summoned the serpent demon to give an 
oracle. But the exact meaning of the Talmud is a 
mystery. 

The Hebrew Mot (niO), Duma (HOW), and Sh'ol 
(^Nttf), were originally demons or Jinn's, corresponding 
to the Greek K^p, ©aVaros and'AtSqs, and to the Roman 
Lethum, Mors and Pluto. 

According to Philo of Byblus (f end of first century 
a.d.) Mot was the son of El. Phoenician and Jewish 
traditions say he hovered near dying persons. The 
name occurs in .HIO 1 ?^ restored by Noldeke to its old 
etymology of 72 and JTJO (see Z. A. W., 1897, P* l8 3 ff -)> 
and JIID^HH ; cf. name Mutaddu in the Tel-el-Arnarna 
tablets; and the modern river name Nahr-el-Mut (Bae- 
dekers " Palestine ")/ 

The Jewish Aggada says that Duma (HOT!, silence) is 
the name of the angel of death. There is a tribe on the 
Syrian boundary that bears this name. Perhaps it was 
the name of the totem animal first of all ; then the name 
of the tribe devoted to this animal. 

£ Sanhed., 65a, b. ^Comm. on Deut. xviii. ft. 

H 



98 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND pEMONOLOGY 

There is a town in the Haur&n of the same name, and 
another among the mountains of Judaea between Hebron 
andBeersheba; modern name ed-Dauma. Sh*ol (VlNttf), 
/now a synonym for grave "Dp, was originally a spirit 
presiding over the underworld, answering to the Pluto 
of Roman mythology. 

Thus Mot, Dumah and Darkness in the folk-lore 
of the Hebrews were demons ; not, however, indeed 
exclusively in the bad sense we attach to that word, for 
they were regarded as to some extent friendly. 

In Exodus iv. 24 we read that Jehovah met Moses 
and spUght to kill him ; through the circumcision of his 
son Moses was let alone. This has been explained as 
meaning that an evil .spirit laid hold of Moses, and that 
the bircumcision of the child caused it to depart. 

Sober exegesis is against this, but it is a fact that 
circumcision has been regarded as a protection against 
demons ; the child, up to the time when the ceremony 
took place, being considered to, be under demoniacal 
control. Just as in the early Church, at the ceremony 
of baptism, a formula of exorcism was uttered by 
the officiating minister, as is done at the present time 
in the Russian orthodox Roman Catholic and German 
Evangelical Churches. Indeed, infant baptism not 
improbably originated in the view that until baptism 
everyone was in the power and Kingdom of Satan. 

Eisenmenger * gives proof that among the Jews cir- 
cumcision was believed to give efficacy to prayer. After 
circumcision, prayer .-was heard, though previously it 
might not have been heard. 

The ear-rings which Jacob buried under "the oak of 

■ "Jud. Ent.,"i. p. 682 f. 



DEMONOtOGV 99 

Shechem were (as remarked before, seep. 52 f.) amulets. 1 
These ear-rings are thus explained by Kleinert in Riehm 
(" Zauberei "), Delitzsch (Franz. Comment, in loco), W. R. 
Smith (Journ. Phil. xiv. 122) and Smend, p. 126, cf. 
Wellhausen, "Reste," p. 165, note 6. 

The O'tfin^ or moonlets, were moon-shaped amulets 
worn around the neck by . men and women, and 
even puf on camels. (See Judges viii. 21 and 26; 
Isaiah iii. 18.) 

Wellhausen, 2 Dozy, 3 give J ^ as an ornament. The 
Greeks used to adorn themselves with inscribed 
sunlets and moonlets.* The modern horseshoe often 
hung up in houses, is a survival of this amulet. 

Israel is urged in Hos. ii. 2, under the figure of the 
wife of the prophet, to put away- her whoredoms from 
her face (0^3) : (i.e. the nose-ring which was a charm 
against the evil eye), and her adulteries from between 
her breasts (i.e. necklaces, also worn as amulets). These 
nose -rings and necklaces, when worn, meant an acknow- 
ledgment of the heathen religion, in which they were 
considered to protect against the evil eye. 

The serpent in the history of the fall is a form of the 
demon. 5 

The bells (O^bj® Exod. xxviii. 33 f., xxxix. 25 f.) 
which hung from the high priest's garment, were irKhe 
first instance amulets 'to frighten the evil spirits away. 
It is a fact that from very ancient times, storms, ra;n, 
thunder, lightning, hail, etc., were ascribed to demotis. 6 
Burton in his " Anatomy of Melancholy," p. 123, says 

1 See Gen. xxxv, 4 ff. 2 "Reste," p. 165. 

3 Dozy, Lexicon, sub voce: 4 See Jahn, p. 42, 

* See Smend, 119; cf. Wellh., Reste, p. 152 fif. 
*jCrooke, i. 65. 



100 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGYj 

that "sudden whirlwinds, tempestuous storms/' though 
often referred by meteorologists to natural causes, are 
most frequently due to " aerial devils/' ■ 

Among the East Indians, the storm-bringing demons 
are scared away by any kind of noise, and especially 
by that of sounding metal. The Circassians sprinkled 
holy water over their friends' graves, and the priests 
tolled bells near Jthem, in order to keep evil spirits 
away. 2 

In Pegu, copper vessels or bells were used to frighten 
away demons that wished to disturb the repose of the 
dead. 2 

Rabbi Bachia b. Asher (Saratoga, 1 291), in his " Com- 
mentary on the Pentateuch," is quoted by Ennemoser 8 
as saying that when interments took place a boy stood 
near the middle of the body, ringing a bell that the evil 
spirits might be kept at a distance. 4 -^ • 

It is now generally held that the object of the ringing 
►of the bells in the Tin of the Temple was that the 
people outside might know the exact moment when the 
priest entered the most holy place. 5 It is quite possible, 
notwithstanding its magical origin, that it came to have 
this function. 

Demonology in the Apocrypha. 

' The Old Testament Apocrypha is comparatively free 
from direct allusions to demons and their work. 

We have, however, an important exception in the 
book of Tobit, chapters vi. and vii. Tobias, sonofTobit, 

1 Cf. Tylor, ii. 26. , k 2 Grant, p. 276. 3 i. p. 380. 

4 Cf. Tylor, ii. p. 113. 

* See Exod. xxviii. 35; cf. Eccles. xlix. $> and Luke i. 9, 2t. 



DEMONOLOGY 10 1 

is sent undeV the guidance of the unknown angel 
Raphael t'o Ecbatana, to claim money due to his father > 
and to seek for himself the hand of Sarah, the beautiful 
daughter of Raguel who lives in that city. In the 
Tigris, a fish is caught, of which he is told, by his angel 
guide, to reserve the heart, liver, and gall ; the first two 
are to prevent the demons, who had killed the former 
husband ^f Sarah, from killing Tobias the first night of 
his marriage. This turns out exactly as intimated at 
the time of the catching of the fish. Sarah is so loved 
by a powerful demon, that, seven men who had in turn 
married her were by him put to death the night of the 
marriage, before indeed it was consummated. 

But the heart and liver of the above fish saved the 
life of Tobias ; by means of them the devil is driven into 
Egypt (viii. 1—3). 

The demon referred to before is called Asmodeus, and 
the incident shows that at the time when the book was 
written (some tipie in the second century B.C., accord- j 
ing to Friizsche, Bissell and Rosenmann) demons were 
believed to be capable of sexual love, reminding one of 
the love of the sons of God for the daughters of men in 
Gen. vi. 2, and especially of the Jinns among the Arabs, 
whom W. R. Smith l rightly regards as by no means 
peculiar to the Arabs, though the name probably is. 

Two opinions prevail as to the etymology of the name 
Asmodeus. A Semitic origin is claimed by the Talmud 
(in which he is called DH'lOT ^D), and by several modern 
scholars. 

The root would in that case be ^$, which in Hiph. 
means to destroy, Asmodeus being an aphel form. But for, 

*-«'Rd. Sem.," p. 4??^ 



102 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEM0N0L0GY 

notin agent, il destroy er," we should, had this etymology 
been correct, have had Masmodeus, not Asmodeus. 

The great bulk of modern scholars identify this 
Asmodeus with the Persian Ashma, who in the Avesta 
is next to Angromainyus, the chief of the evil spirits, 
Benfey, Stem, Windischmann, Fritssche (in Schenkel 
sub wee) and Kohut, say the word means covetous, lustfiiL 
The last part of the word is, they say, derived from 
doeva (div)=demon (cf. &uos, deus). Thus also Baudissen 
(Herzog ii.). 

Rev. J. M. Fuller, 1 while admitting the Persian origin, 
holds that the character given to Asmodeus agrees with 
Babylonian rather than with Persian belief. 

Evil spirits are referred t6 in some other parts of the 
Apocrypha— such as in Wisdom ii. 24 (" by the envy of 
the tievil {6 StdftoXos] cleath entered into the world 1 *). In 
Ecclus. xxi. 27 Satan is mentioned. 

Demonology in the New Testament. 

Those miracles recorded in the Gospels by which 
demons were expelled, sliow that in the time of Christ 
the belief in demoniacal possession and in the power 
of exorcism was prevalent among the Jews. It has been 
the habit among Christian expositors to accept these 
accounts in their literal sense. Thus Edersheim, 2 
Delitzsch, 3 Rev. Walter Scott, 4 and the bulk of theo- 
logical writers, not to mention the widespread belief 
of the Churches. 

This same belief prevails among the Chinese at the 
present time. Dr. Nevius, for many years an American 

1 Speaker's Commentary. 2 "Life and Times of the Messiah,". 

3 In Riehm, art. " Besessene," i. p. 209b. '" 
« " The Existence of Evil Spirits." 



DEMONOLOOY IO3 

Presbyterian missionary in China, says that the modern 
Chinese have the very same conceptions, as to possession 
arid exorcism, which the Jews entertained in the first 
century of our era. Moreover, he contends that, 
though when he first settled in the country he strongly 
opposed these conceptions, he adopted them subse- 
quently as his own. 

Rev. R. Bruce, B.A., at present a missionary in the 
same country, told me some months back (February, 
1897) that a prominent convert to Christianity had, 
before his conversion, a great reputation as an exorcist. 
People supposed to be possessed Came~or were brought 
to him from all parts. Notwithstanding the fact that he 
has ceased to belong to the popular religion, andj indeed, 
is now an eloquent Christian preacher, yet the natives, 
though not themselves Christians, continue to flock to 
him, and he is, they say, as successful now as before his 
change of religion. 

Mr. Bruce tells me that the Chinese converts to 
Christianity take the gospel narratives concerning 
demon possession quite literally, and the missionaries 
do not feel called upon to correct the views they have, 
even if they hold different views from the natives. 

There can, however, be no doubt that in all these 
cases, in Palestine and in China, nothing more is meant 
than certain diseases superstitiously regarded as due to 
demoniacal influence. 

Among the Jews of a later time, and probably at this 
very time, 0*7$ or demons are designated according 

to the diseases they induce. There were demons of 
asthma, croup, hydrophobia, insanity and indigestion. 1 

1 1 See authorities quoted by Edersheim, ii. p. 759- 






) 



IO4 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEM0N0L0GY 

How widespread this view is, appears from what Dr. 
E. B. Tylor tells us of the Indian Archipelago and its 
superstitions. 1 

It is a confirmation of the identity of demons and 
diseases that among all peoples the favourite resorts of 
demons are damp places, latrines, ovens, ruined houses,' 
rivers, etc., in the East the most prolific originators of 
sickness. 

Tallqvist 2 says that among the Assyrians, demons 
were named after the diseases due to them. He further 
tells us Jthat the connection was so close that names 
of demons and ^corresp'onditTg^ diseases came to be 
identical. 

Demons were among the later Jews supposed to be 
j capable of being transferred from ' one individual to 
another, or from human beings to animals. We come 
across this formula in the Talmud : " May the blindness 
of M, the son of N, leave him and pierce the eyeballs 
of this dog." 3 

D'Alviella 4 speaks of the same idea— -that demons were 
transferred from human beings to animals, stones, etc. 

Compare with this Christ's casting out of demons 
from the man on the east of the Sea of Galilee, and 
causing them to enter swine in such wise that the swine 
rushed into the lake and were drowned (Matt. viii. 28 f.; 
Mark v. 1 ff.; Luke viii. 26 f.; cf. also Mark vi. 25). 

Josephus, who was born less than a decade after the 
death of Jesus, has an interesting parallel to this. In 
Antiq. viii. 2, 5, he gives an account of a celebrated exor- 
cist of his time, by name EHezar. He saw him, not only 
casting out evil spirits, but giving ocular demonstration of 

1 " Prim. Cult.," ii. 127. 2 " Assyr. Besch.," p. 17. 

3 Gittin, iv. 66* * Hibb. Lect., p. SB £ 



DEMONOLOGY^ 105 

the fact. This Eliezar proceeded thus— and all this the 
Jewish historian says he " saw ^with his own eyes." He 
applied to the nostrils of the possessed a ring having 
attached to it a root which Solomon is made to have 
prescribed. The demons came out through the same 
nostrils by which they are alleged to have entered. 
f This last is significant, for how many diseases are trace- 
able to* what is inhaled. As the demons came out, 
Eliezar caused them to pass into a basin filled with 
water, which was at once thrown over. 

The same superstition as to. the connection of demons 
and disease obtained among the Egyptians, as I have 
already pointed out. 1 

We have before us in the New Testament, phenomena 
which are upon all fours with what we see among the 
best known nations of antiquity, and there is no doubt 
that in all cases we have the same data— disease due to 
demoniacal influence, and recovery a result of driving 
out the demon. This is not the place to vindicate the 
character of Christ in either winking at the ignorance or 
superstition of His contemporaries, or in being Himself 
the victim of such ignorance or superstition. This is 
the task of the theologian, and I do not think it is a very 
difficult one. I will, however, say this much, that we do 
not read of Christ's employing such means as exorcists 
employ. He never counsels the wearing of amulets. 
He appears even to despise those who do put on such 
defences as phylacteries, etc. He applies no medica- 
ment ; He utters no incantation ; He simply speaks the 
vv ord. 

In Acts xix. we have two noteworthy incidents. In 

* See Wiedemann, p. 271 ff. 



106 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

verse 12 we are told that not only was Paul able to cast 
out demons and heal diseases, but that handkerchiefs 
and aprons which had been in contact with his body 
had this same power. This is much like the anti- 
demoniacal magic which one meets among heathen 
nations. 

In verses 13 — 20, many of those at Ephesus, who 
practised " curious," i e. {i magical ,9 arts (ncpUpya), brought 
their books together and burned them in the sight of 
all. We know from other sources, literary and monu- 
mental, that the Ephesians used such written charms, 
called £<f}(<Jia ypa//,//,ara. 

The formulae were written on leather generally, 
though some on papyrus, on lead, and even on gold. 
Those mentioned in the present instance must have 
been more valuable than leather. They could hardly 
have cost ^"2000 (50,000 drachmas) unless some were 
made of gold. Such charms have been dug up from the 
ruins of Ephesus. 

Antichrist. 

It appears to me that the Antichrist legend, the seeds 
of which are to be found in Daniel, where Antiochus 
Epiphanes is the arch-enemy of God, is part of the same 
general conception, 

In later Judaism the Antichrist appears as Armillus, 
under which name he often figures in the Jewish fables 
of the Middle Ages. He is known by this name already 
in the Targum of Jonathan on Isaiah xi. 4. 

In 2 Thess. ii, 1 — 12, and in Rev. xiii. zo, this concep- 
tion comes prominently forward, Whoever is meant — 
and emperors, popes, and many others have been put 



DEMONOLOGY 107 

forward-— it appears to me that we have here the opera- 
tion of that dualism which was so powerful a factor 
in the Oriental world, and especially among the Baby- 
lonians and Persians. It is a pity that Bible expounders 
so generally regard the conception as a product of the 
Jewish ' mind alone. It is really part of a very general 
idea among Eastern peoples. 

A shojit and simple account of views respecting cl Anti- 
christ,' ' or its equivalent in the Bible and among Jews 
and Christians in later time, may be seen in Findlay's 
excellent Commentary oh " the Epistles to the Thes- 
salonians," p, 170 fF. But for a full history of the " Anti- 
christ Legend," students will consult the able work of 
Bousset (Englished by A. H. Keane, London, 1896). 

Demonology of Josephus. 

The great Jewish historian, Josephus, was born a.d. 37 
and died a.d. 100, i.e. so near the time of Jesus Christ 
that his belief may be regarded as sampling the Jewish 
beliefs of Christ's day. 

In Antiq. viii. 2, 5, already referred to, he says that 
God taught Solomon how demons were to be expelled, 
a M science useful and sanitative to men." He (Solomon) 
composed incantations by which demons were exorcised 
.and diseases healed. 

The a root " by which Eliezar drove out evil spirits is 
very like, if not identical with, that which he describes 
in Wars,- vii. 6, 3. He calls it " Baaras," probably the 
Hebrew ttllfQ boara, burning, for he describes it as 
flame-like in colour, emitting at evening a lightning-like 
ray. Unless protected by certain drugs, it is fatal to 
j;ouch it. It must also be carried in a certain way. All 



108 MAGIC, DIVINATION, 'AND 0EMONOLOGV 

this shows how closely in the mind of Josephus, as in all 
times and among all peoples, demonology and magic go 
hand in hand, this last supplying the antidote to the 
former. 



Demonology of rm Pseudefigraphical Writings. 

The word Pseudepigrapha (i/rcvScm'ypa^a) is used by 
many Protestant scholars to designate a number of 
Greek writings, called mostly after patriarchs, prophets 
etc., of the Old Testament, such as Enoch, Testament of 
the Twelve Patriarchs, Psalms of Solomon, etc. By far 
the most important of this collection for our purpose 
is the Book of Enoch, and we shall refer to no other. 

In ehs. vi. — xyi., which belong to the ground-work 
of our existing Book of Enoch, and which Charles dates 
before b,c. 170, we have a history of the fall of the 
angels. This came through their lusting after the 
daughters of men, whom they at length marry, and from 
whom ; they get children. These children are giants in 
strength and their wickedness proportionate. 

Demons, according to ch. xvi. 1, are the ghosts of 
those malicious giants gotten of the angels by the 
daughters of men. These demons, in their disembodied 
state, are allowed to bring moral ruin among men until 
the time of the final judgment. 

In ch. liv. 6 and ch. lxix^ 5,' which, according to 
Charles, is eighty or ninety years later than the other 
part, Satan is set forth as the ruler of a counter kingdom 
of evil, though one subject to the Lord of spirits. He it 
was who led the angels astray, and made them subjects 
of his kingdom. 



demonology io9 

Demonology in Post-Biblical Judaism. 

The Mishna and Talmud fall first to be considered, 
and this can be done but briefly. 

It is indisputable that, as compared with the Gemara, 1 
the Mishna is very free from magic and demonology. 
The reason for this is not far to seek. 1 

The Mishna is almost wholly halachic, i.e. it contains 
for the most part laws for the government of Jewish 
persons, homes and communities. 

Then, again, it was conceived and put to writing 2 at a 
period when Jews were very exclusive. In later times 
the Jews settled numerously in Babylon, Persia and 
Egypt, and contact with other religions would make 
them broader, and more ready to adopt new principles 
and practices. 

There are, however, in the Mishna, as Joel is compelled 
to admit, undoubted traces of magic. (See Joel i. p. 57.) 

But it is in the Gemara that demonology and magic 
bulk largely ; and it is particularly interesting to note 
that what in the Mishna has a natural explanation, is 
regarded in the Gemara from the magical point of view. 

JHPT VV in the Mishna means simply " ;envy," as in 
Pirqe Abot ii. n : " Envy (jrn ]*y), evil desire, and 

1 See supra, 61 f. 

2 Whether the Mishna was eVer, as such, put to writing prior to or 
even during the time of the Amoraim is uncertain. The Amoraim 
simply quote the tradition ; no MS. of the Mishna is once referred to 
in either Talmud. Vet it is hardly likely that such an immense col- 
lection of material should be handed on by word of mouth alone. It 
has been said that for each part of the Mishna separate scholars were 
set apart. When, therefore, in the schools of Sural), Pumbadith, 
Tiberias, etc., the sections of the Mishna were discussed, the text was 
supplied by the persons appointed to commit the particular part to 
memory. 



1 10 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOL0&1T 

hatred of human 1 creatures, take men out of the world." 
Cf. v. 19 : M Envy (>nn VV) i and haughtiness and lust." 

In these passages the effect is taken for the cause, just 
as among the Assyrians and in later Jewish.Jiterature, 
demons and diseases are identified^ 

We have in \ the same tract, of the Mishna 1 the 
antithetic phrase rQi& ] l y, which must have been formed 
by analogy/ 

In the Talmud, and in other Jewish writings of a later 
time, \% means "a sickness due to the action of demons." 
See Levy, sub ^y , for examples. 

Magic and demonology reached their highest point 
among the Amoraim in the time of Abaya (best known of 
the Pumbaditha teachers) and Raba, who was head of 
the Machusa Rabbinical SchooL 

Abaya acknowledges that he had changed his own 
opinion as to demoniacal influence. Thus he says, 2 
formerly he looked upon washing of the hands after 
meals as needful for cleanliness only ; but later he came 
to believe it to be necessary in order to remove all traces 
of contact by evil spirits. Formerly the sin of eating out 
of a bundle of vegetables consisted in the fact that it 
showed greediness. But subsequently he came to see 
that such a bundle contained an evil spirit, and each part 
taken out of the bundle was injurious for that reason. 

Joel, in Heft i. and ii., gives detailed accounts with 
adequate citations of the magical and demonological 
beliefs and practices which prevailed among the Jews 
from the time of the Genera to comparatively modern' 
times. See also Brecher's compact and interesting book. 

I submit here a brief and general statement concerning 

1 ji. 9. i Khullin, 105W 



DEMONOLOGY III 

Jewish demonology'. In this part I am "much indebted 
to Weber and to Kohut. Full references to authorities 
are given by these writers. 

Evil spirits are called mazziqin (PjpMO), i.e. beings who 

injure (p>3). They are divided into two main classes: — 

I. Fallen angels who are wholly supernatural. Their 
leader is Satan, a spirit of delusion (JTKStfn fTD), an 

accuser (J^tD^D Kar^yopos), and the messenger of death 

.(»rto ^q). (See Kohut, p. 88-9.) He is not to be 

distinguished, Weber thinks, from Sammael ( (/KDD, 

the poison of God, i.e. a great poison), who was once an 
archangel near the throne of God. He it was who in; 
the form of the serpent deceived Eve (Weber 253). 

II. The second class of PjJMO (mazziqin) are half 
supernatural and half human. Of these note two 
separate kinds : 

(1) The $?$ (cf. hf> "night") Lilin, begotten of 

Adam on the one side, and Lilith and other female^ 
spirits on the other. Lilith reigns over these as queen. 

(2) The- DHttf (Tltf "to be violent n ) Shedim, the 

offspring of Eve and male spirits. Their king is Asmedai ! 
(=Asmpdeus), who,however, resembles the merry if also 
mischief-making hobgoblins of fairy tales, 1 more than he 
does the Persian Asmai or the Apocryphal Asmodeus 
(though these last two are not quite identical) 

In the time of Solomon all these demons existed and 
practised their arts. He, however, so long as he kept 
the commandments of God, had absolute control over 

1 Cf. the German Zwerge. 'See Grimm's u Teutonic Mythology/' 
1409 and i8£i. . 



ii2 mag;c, divination, and demonology 

them, their leaders as well. But as soon as he fell into 
sin, the demons were his master and not he theirs* 

These demons, as the corresponding beings among 
Arabs (Jinns) and Assyrians, carried on their work in the 
night. The moment the cock crew their work was 
gone (Weber 255). Has the incident about Peter's 
denying Christ before the cock crowing any reminiscence 
of this ? (cf. Matt. xxvi. 75) 



COUNTERCHARMS. 

Among the Jews the methods of self-protection against 
demon agency were similar to those in vogue among 
other nations, Arabs, etc. These consisted 'Of amulets, 
incantations and physical agents. 

Phylacteries (]^9n), mezuzas (J"tfft?D), and tsitsith 
(/TIPS) were at the first charms against demons, though 
Weber (p. 27 f.) denies this, maintaining with most 
modern Jews that their purpose was at the first to 
remind those who wore tefillin and tsitsith, and those 
who passed through the doors, of their duty to love and 
serve Jehovah. * 

But according to M e nakhot,- 33b and Berishit Rabba, 
ch. 35, the mezuza served to protect the house against 
injury. R. Elieser b. Jacob, in M e nakhot, 33b, says, 
14 Whoever has the tefillin on his head, the mezuza on his 
door, and the tsitsith on his mantle, may feel sure that 
he cannot sin, for it is said, Qohel. iv. 12, * a threefold cord 
is not easily broken/ " Weber explains the impossi- 
bility of sinning on religious grounds— the power of 
the tefillin etc., to keep the commands of Jehovah in 

1 See Kohut, p. 81 f., and Griinbaum, Z.D.M.G., xxxi. p. 3Q<k 



DHMONOLOGV II3 

remembrance. But the quotation shows that it is a 
magical binding that is meant. 1 

Weber gives quotations from Jewish writings (Talmud, 
etc.) to show that the religious explanation was the 
true one. But all that he succeeds in showing is that 
there were in early times, Jewish scholars who 
endeavoured to explain these charms in a rational way, 
and this either for the sake of vindicating Judaism from 
the calumniations of Christians, or in order to supply a 
rational basis for these primitive superstitions, which are 
to be found in our own time among the Jews of all 
countries. Modern Jews will often wear tifillin and 
• tsitsith as they go about, believing them to prevent 
accidents, sickness and death. In December, 1887, I 
travelled from Alexandria to Jaffa in a steamer in 
company with a Jew who wore his tifillin the whole 
journey. But while we reached Palestine in safety, the 
tifillin did not keep off from either him or me the demon 
[of sea-sickness. 

Other safeguards were the pronunciation of the 
Aaronic blessing, 2 of the u Sh e ma 4 " 3 and its accompanying 
prayers, and of passages of Scripture which had power 
under special circumstances. Thus, if the traveller 
recited Zech. iii. 2, 4 he could keep away the angel of 
death. If Psalm xci. was said before the sleeper closed 
his eyes, he would be sure to awake safely in the morning.' 
Upon waking, he was not to rub his eyes until he had 
, washed them, lest the JHV? D2 (demon of sickness) should 
.blind him. 

1 See Targum on Cant. viii. 3. W. Robertson Smith (Journ. Phil., 
xiii. 286) says, " the phylacteries are survivals of old superstition." 
• Num. vi. 24 — 26. 3 Deut. vi. 4 — 9. 

% "Jehovah said unto Satan, 'Jehovah rebuke thee/ " etc. 



H4 .MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DBMONOLOGY 

Fumigation was another device employed (cf. Tobit 
vi. 1 6, viii. 3). Perhaps the smoke of the fish's liver in 
Tobit was believed by its offensiveness to drive away the 
demon, just as the sweet-smelling odour 1 served to 
attract Jehovah. 

Demons were supposed to feed on certain particles at 
night. It was therefore dangerous to drink water in the 
night lest Shabriri (HH3tt>), the demon of blindness, 
should smite the drinker. 2 The latter might, however, 
cause the demon to gradually decay by lopping off the 
syllables of his name one by one and pronouncing the 
continually shortening name. Thus Shabriri, briri, riri, 
ri. Directly the drinker said ri the demon died. This 
answers to what is now called sympathetic magic. 



Sources of Jewish Magic and Demonology. 

Two main views have been held as to the principal 
quarter from which Judaism was influenced in its 
magical and demonological beliefs. 

On the one hand, Persia with its Zoroastrianism is 
claimed as the chief factor. On the other, Babylon and 
contiguous Aramaic countries are pointed to as that. 

The first view is defended with considerable learning 
and with great vehemence by two Jewish Rabbis, Kohut 
and Schorr. 

The second and more recent view is advocated by 
Lenormant, 3 and by Dr. Gaster, 4 the last making 
Gnosticism the immediate and Babylonianism the 
ultimate factor. 

1 nTP3 m» Lev. i. 9, and often. 2 Abodah Zarah, 12b. 

* "Chaldean Magic." A Asiatic Journal r , Jan., 1S96. 



DEMONOLOGY 1 1 5 

Schorr's first volume appeared before Kohut's, and he 
probably suggested to the latter some points, and 
perhaps the drift of his argument. But his second Heft 
came out in 1872 ; i.e. six years after Kohut's book was 
published. Schorr's special aim was to show that the 
Talmud is of little worth, as it owes nearly all it contains 
to other religions and especially to Parseeism. In his 
second wd/k he charges Kohut with gross inaccuracies, 
alleging that he did not understand the Talmud. He 
is profoundly surprised that the German Oriental 
Society (D.M.G.) should have issued with its imprimatur 
so unscientific a production. Prior to this, however, 
Kohut had in th,e Nachtrag of his work 1 made an attack 
upon Schorr. 

There are in Kohut's work many blunders which 
ordinary care could have prevented. Thus at p. 33 he 
translates ID as a proper name, and has therefore to insert 

>Gott to make a subject for the following verb. 

Mar is not a Jewish doctor as Kohut assumes, but 
simply a name of God — " The Lord stretched forth His 
hand." 

For his acquaintance with Zoroastrianism the author 
is indebted, as he acknowledges, to the writings of 
Sprenger and Windischmann, which he constantly cites. 

He thinks he has proved his thesis when he has shown 
that there are resemblances between post-exilic Judaism 
and Parseeism. This is therefore the task he sets himsejf 
to accomplish, and in this he succeeds, as it was easy to 
succeed. But Kohut shows no knowledge of the Baby- 
lonian religion, from which Parseeism borrowed its most 
essential doctrines, and to which scholars are more and 

1 p. 96, ff. 



Il6 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMOXOLOGY 

more disposed to trace the magic and demonology of 
later Judaism. 

Kohut says, that although Jews were transplanted to 
Mesopotamia and Babylon, many of them crossed over 
to Persia. According to Esther iii. 8, Jews dwelt in all 
the provinces of Persia. Josephus 1 says the Jews were 
carried by Nebuchadnezzar to Media and to Persia : 
further on 2 in the same work he says, many of the Jewish 
exiles had passed from Assyria to Persia.* 

Granting all this, it is nevertheless true that the majority 
of Jews remained in Mesopotamia* and Babylon, and it 
is much more likely that they were influenced by the 
religions of these countries. 

Kchut cannot resist the temptation to quote Isa. xlv. 7* 
as showing Persian influence. But fire or light was 
worshipped among the Accadians long before we read 
,of it among the Persians. From the Accadians it passed 
to the Babylonians, who took over 5 not onlyttie country, 
but the Cuneiform mode qf\ writing and much of the 
religion. From the Babylonians it was received hy the 
Zoroastrians.. ■ 

Lenormant* and Tallqvist^ show the importance of the 
£re-god (cf. the Agni of the Vedas). Dr. Friederich 
Jeremias says that Gibil, the Babylonian fire-god, was 
undoubtedly the most powerful deity invoked by the 
exorcist. 7 

So likewise dualism was rife among the Accadians and 
Babylonians as well as among the Persians, though they 



1 Antiqq. ix. 15. s xi. 52. 3 Kohut, p: 4 f. 

4 " I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create 
evil.". 
fc " Chald. Magic," p. 184 f. « "Assyr. Besdbu," p. 23. 

? De la Saussaye, i. p. 214, , 



DEMONOLOGY II 7 

had" hot reached the two unities which tRe Parsees had 
worked to, Ahuramazda and Agromainyus. Lenormant l 
holds, however, that the Babylonians had a clear concep- 
tion of the divine unity, notwithstanding their apparent 
Pantheism and Polytheism. 

It is important to note that for seven or eight hundred 
years after the Exile, the Jews shew scant traces of the 
alleged Parsee influence. The doctrine of Satan in Job, 
Zech. etc., of the good and bad angels of Ezek. ix. 2—4, 
of the archangels Gabriel and Michael— these might iust 
as well have come by way of Babylon. 

Kohut 2 tries to show that Gabriel is the counterpart 
of the Zoroastrian Qraosho. But Lenormant 3 points out 
that Qraosho j s taken from the Accadian Silikmulukhi. 
It is possible, in general, when Kohut finds in Parseeism 
parallels to Old Testament angelology or demonology, 
to find such parallels in the Babylonian and often in the 
Accadian religion. 

Kohut thinks the principle of arranging angels in 
orders, arch^gels (Michael and Gabriel) and angels, is a 
sign of contact with Persia. But Lenormant 4 says that 
among the spirits believed in by the Accadians there 
were such hierarchical ranks. 

It is in the period subsequent to the second century 
of our era that Judaism shows the most remarkable 
development in regard to angelology, demonology and 
magic. It is not therefore so much a question as to what 
people influenced the Jews during the Exile, but rather 
who influenced them most during the Talmudic period* 
The Amoraim had schools in Palestine (Tiberias, 
Sepphoris, Caesarea and Lydda) and in Babylon 

1 " Chaldl Magic." p. 112. 3 p. 28. 

8 « Chald. Magic," p. 195J *Jb., p. 24 f. 



1 1 8 MAGIC, DIVINATION,. AND DgMONOLOGY 

(Neharda, Sura, Pumpaditha, Mahusa and Neresh) ; but 
those of Babylon were the largest, drew the best teaphers t 
and they lasted the longest. 

Anz. 1 has shown that the Babylonian religion continued 
to flourish until the s.econd century of our era at least ; 
and traces of Gnosticism can be found in the very first 
centuries, if not, indeed, in the time before our era set in. 
When the ancient religion of Babylon ceased to exist as 
an institution, ifs .dogmas did not cease to be known or 
even believed ; nor did they cease to be operative upon 
the forces of heathenism, Judaism and Christianity, with 
which they came in contact; 

In Zoroastrianism, which it always modified in the 
Jewish schools of the country, and in the Talmud which 
preserves their teaching, we haye the continued life of 
the old religion of the Accadians.^ 

It may be said that Zoroastrianism was'the immediate 
factor that operated upon Babylonian Judaism ; but even 
this is not to be conceded, for there were in Babylonia 
at this time Gnostic sects which inherited and handed on, 
much of the old national religion; 

It is being more and more acknowledged that Judaism 
owed much, if not most, of its magic to Gnostic influence. 
(See Gaster, p. 152 f.) It is only now getting to be seen 
how deep and widespread was the power wielded by 
Ophites, Mandaeans and other Gnostic sects/ 

The mystic magic of the Qabbalah is certaiiiLy due to 
this influence. 

Prof. Kessler 2 and Ans — the latter with much learning 
— show that Gnosticism, heathen, Jewish and Christian, 

1 "Zur Frage" etc., p. 60 f. 

3 Encyc. Brit. " Mandaeans !> : llev/og — Plitt " Mandaev" ; cf. also 
his " Ueber Gnosis und AUbabylonische Religion" in Transaction* 
Berlin Oriental Congress, 18S2. 



"DEMONOLOGY 11 9 

has its foots in the ancient religion of Babylon. The 
Mandaeans exist at. the present time,' and have been 
visited in recent "years by the late Dr. Petermann and 
by Prof. Dr. A. Socin... 

Gunkel says, 1 " The more Babylonianism becomes 
known to* us, the clearer does it get that it operated- 
powerfully in very late post-Christian times. Babylonian 
elements are' to be traced among Hellenistic Greeks, 
Gnosticism and, later, Manichaeism as well as Madaism,^ 
have preserved in^ them -considerable/ elements of 
Babylonian tradition." 

The late Principal Tullock 2 defends the old view that 
.Gnosticism was indebted principally to the theology of 
Alexandria (Philoh), and especially to Parseeism. 

The discovery and interpretation of Cuneiform 
monuments'; and careful, study of v Eastern religions, is 
proving that it has been' the habit to over-estimate the 
influence of Parseeism in shaping Judaism, and to under- 
estimate that of Babylon. 

It would be wrong, however, to" deny that Persian 
religioji did have some formative power upon both 
i Babylonianism and upon Judaism. 

Joel differs from his* brother Rabbi in that he attaches 
more weight to the Babylonian than to the Persian 
influence. 8 

PEMONOLOGY AMONG THE ARABS AND MOSLEMS. 

Freytag 4 and Wellhausen 5 are our principal authori- 
ties^ on this subject. If ane \p his " Thousand and one 

r 1 " Schorfung und Chaos," p. 294'. 2 Encyc. Brit. " Gnosticism. " 
W Professor Cheyne's " Jewish Religious Life after the Exile" has 

come into my hands as I am correcting the final proofs. I am glad to 

see that he attaches greater importance to Babylonian than to Persian 

influence. (See p. 25 ff.) 

' * " Einleitung," p. 164 ff. J " Reste," p. 148 ff. 



1 20 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOtOGY 

Nights " l and in his "Modern Egyptians," has a long 
and valuable note on "Jinns." This Hughes has epito- 
mized and somewhat adapted in his dictionary under 
M Genii." Goldziher i gives some valuable notes on the 
subject. 

The Jinns of the Arabs are not to be considered as 
demons sui generis, as seems to be implied by many 
writers. This has been rightly emphasized by W. R. 
Smith. 3 

Yet the name is peculiar to the Arabs, for the 
derivation from the classical Genii, or the identifying of 
the roots, has been rejected by all modern Arabicists. 
In the first edition of his " Reste " Wellhausen contended 
that Jinn was a loan-word ; Noldeke 4 showed, on the 
contrary, that it is a genuine Arabic word, and in the 
new edition of his <( Reste " 5 Wellhausen very candidly 
acknowledges Noldeke's correction to be just, and he 
accordingly adopts it. Its strict meaning is u covering," 
11 hiding ' ' it being the noun of action of the verb jy*. Then 
from its abstract meaning it acquires the concrete 
meaning of those who hide themselves, or who dwell in 
secret places. ^^H is also a term used for the Jinns. 

($W the participle of the same verb is another designa- 
tion of the Jinns. But Arabian writers are not consistent 
in their use of this word, as sometimes it stands for Iblis, 
the father and ruler of the Jinns, while at other times it 

9 

is used interchangeably with Jinn (<£*). See Land's note. 
Islamic writers distinguish between angels (<&%>•) — all 
of whom are good, devils (e^^*) — a ^ °f whom are bad, 
and Jinns '-(<£*), some of whom are good and some bad. 

1 Ch. L, note 2i. 3 " Abhand." i. s "Rel. Sem.," p. 424. 

4 Z.D.M.G., xli. p. 717 ff. * p. 148, note 3, 



DEMONOLOGY 121 

In Ouran lxxii. 1 1 the Jinns are made to say fi some of 

- f " j 
us are good and some otherwise" (<£\J«3 <^) : this last 

meaning the antithesis to good — bad, though the com- 
mentator Zamakshari takes the sense of the last clause 
to be intermediate between good and bad. 

The demons of Islam were, for the most part, gods 
worshipped in the "time of ignorance," just as the 
prophets of Yahwe reduced heathen deities to the same 
level. 1 Ouzah (t)j*) the pre-Islamic god was to the 
Moslems a Satan or Jinn. 2 

This accounts for the important fact rightly emphasized 
by Wellhausen 3 that the Jinns so commonly assume a 

serpent form. Indeed, the words jann IqW) and ghoul 

( jyO became names for the serpent. 
Among other names of Jinns the following may be 

given \-*-Mak : Ifrit («h/^) ; Azabb (vr>j% literally harry,; 
cf. Hebrew 'VJrtP) ; Izb (v>^) ; Aziab (v>^). Female : 

Ghul (j^); 'Aulaq (jJy); Aluq (js^=Heb. n|WJT 
in Prov, xxx. 15). Freytag (p. 167) adds several others to 
this list. J*W } literally " corrupter," is used for Jinn and 
devil. 

Several attempts have been made to differentiate 
between the functions of these several evil spirits. 4. 

In the Quran, Sur. $5, the inhabitants of the earth are 
represented as of two kinds, men and demons. In 

verse 31 ($& literally "two heavy ones," or weights, 
i.e. two bodies of creatures is used to describe them. 
Among the Moslems the word Satan came to be used 

1 See supra, p. 38. * Goldziher, " Abh.," p. ira t 

3 " Reste," p» 1 $3. * See Lane's note, and Freytag, p« *6f> 



T22 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

in the same sense as Jinn. Hence we have in the Quran */ 
the plural Satans (^*kUa.)j and the activity ascribed to 
these Satans is of a piece with what is elsewhere said of 
the Jinns. 

Mohammed showed his usual diplomacy in accepting! 
the heathen belief in Jinns, though in a modified form. 1 
In the Quran, 2 in the Hadeth, in the life of the Prophet 1 
by Ibn Isham, and in other quarters, Mohammed's doctrine 
of Jinns is more or less folly spoken of; 

In the opening of Sura 72 are these words : "Say, 
it hath been revealed to me that a company of Jinns 
listened, and said : * Verily we have heard a marvellous 
discourse }% { (Quraji). Here the Prophet clearly assumes 
the real existence of the Jinns; 

But what the Prophet strongly /reprobated was the* 
lieathen practice of worshipping the Jinns^ 

Musejlima;.; and the false prophet al-Aswad al 'Ansi^ 
too; .were -acknowledged to be under the, influence o£ 
Jinns v ^Ijat ^of .J, truth thcij r ^^\ predicted was* by; 
Mohammed ascribed to the fact' that it came from tlie^ 

:J inn ,C. r .._. 

Even .the Mu'tasiliten, who professed to contend for; 

pure .and unadulterated Islam,' assumed the Jirins to 

have a re51 existence. ^ 

Moslem philosophers were disposed to minimize the 

role played by demons. ^Neither al-Farabi, the Arab, 

Aristotle (t9So), c por Masa'udi (t956), denied the existence 

of Jinns. : Abu Sina (Avieenna 17037) was the first 

Moslem writer of note whp relegated the Jinns to the 

realm of mere fable. On the relation of Islam, to the 

doctrine of Jinns J see Goldziher,' J07 #, • ^pd 5prepger'% 

* vi. 70 ; xxui. 99H8&^9^ ^ 333m <5> imh 9, ttc* 



DEMONOLOGY 12$ 

11 Leben und Lehre des Mohammads,-' ii. pp.239— 251, 
quoted by Goldziher. 

The English " Will o' the Wisp," or " Jack o' lanthern," 
was supposed by the early Arabs as by our European 
forefathers, to be carried by Jinns* Indeed, similar be- 
liefs are still to be met with in our own country* Among 
the pre-Islamic and Islamic Arabs the Jinns were com- 
monly conceived of as carrying with them lights, 1 and 
also as riding on animate, .especially the fox. 3 It will be 
of interest in this connection to note the divine appear- 
ance to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus iii. 2).? 

Locations — They dwell specially in sandy barren deserts 
(u*V> s i n g- *")*) unapproachable to man, such as 
Abgar, Barahut, Baqqar, Tsaihad and Jabrin. Really, 
however, these spots are magic oases in such deserts. 
But the tame and friendly Jinns are not seldom denizens 
in the homes of human beings. They are to be found 
in large numbers among the mountains of Qaf («~rtl) which 
surround this world. They live, too, in holy trees, and 
in damp, dark places of the earth ; in fact, they may be 
found anywhere. 

Time of Action.— It is in the night they carry on their 
work. 

Form. — Though their proper and distinct form is that 
of the serpent, 3 they can assume any form at will, 
animal or human. But they are generally invisible, and 
it is the work not the worker that is to be seen. If a 
man or woman disappear in the wilderness, it is at once 
put down to the Jinns who have carried them off. Any 
abnormal, unexplainable event is credited to them. 

1 See Goldziher, " Abh.," p. 20. a lb., p. 209. 

3 Wellh. Reste, p. 152 f. W. Robertson Smith, however, denies 
this, see «' Rel. Semites," p. 422. 



124 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY 

Indeed they are a kind of dens ex machina to account for 
what else would be unaccountable, this suggesting a 
possible cause of their being so largely believed in by the 
curious Arabs. 

Work, — Accidents, sickness, insanity (hence called 
QF*)i the inspiration of singers, of poets, and of prophets 
— these and much else? are ascribed to Jinns. They often 
post themselves at windows and on roofs, and throw large 
stones at people who pass by. They steal clothes, food, 
etc., and when anything is missing they are often blamed 
for the theft — a boon for the real thief ! 

Mode of Life.— The Jinns eat and drink like other, 
people. They are male and female, marry and get 
children. Sometimes they have children by human 
beings, the offspring partaking of the nature of both 
parents. Some Jinns are peaceable and friendly, others 
the reverse. Like men, they are divided into believers and 
unbelievers. Those who are good Moslems discharge the 
duties of religion — prayer, alms, fasting during the month 
Ramad&n, the pilgrimage to Mekka and Mount Arafat, with 
as much care as the most devoted among believing men. 

As among later Jews, so among Moslems, Solomon 
plays an important part in reference to the Jinns. The 
means by which he was able to control them was a most 
beautiful sealing-ring, which he received direct from 
heaven, and on which was engraved the "great name", 

j -C?C J c c- 

of God (fk*$\ (*~l\). By virtue of this ring Solomon 
was able to compel the Jinns to assist in building the 
temple of Jerusalem. 

Lane l gives a sketch of some spirits generally believed 
to be an inferior kind of Jinn. Among these he names 
the Ghul, Si'lat or Si'la, Ghaddar, Dalhan and Shiqq. 
1 "Arab. Nights/' i. p. 36 ft 



DEMONOLOGY 12$ 

COUNTERCHARMS. 

(See also "Magic among the Arabs," p. 63 ff.) 

These, in the main, are of the usual kind : amulets, 
material agents and formulae of incantation, showing that 
we are dealing with a general superstition and not with 
anything that was confined to the Arabs, though there 
ar£ in ali such cases peculiarities due to physical environ- 
ment, temperament, and religion. 

Among amulets may be mentioned rings suspended 
from the ears and nose and worn on the fingers. Bands 
and girdles were worn, much as the modern Jew carries 
under his clothing the Talith Qaton l (18 j? wb&). 

Among physical agents the plant called ©\^» was 
believed to act as a deterrent to demons. Citron in the 
house kept demons away. 

Incantations were also used. Among the Moslems these 
were parts of the Quran and other religious formulae. 
The " spell " called J&s> consisted of a string of passages 
from the Quran. The same passages could be written 
on an amulet. 

Assyrian Demonology. 

Under the head of " Assyrian Magic," 2 much was of 
necessity said that forms part of demonology. 

To the innumerable company of demons belong the 
seven evil spirits whose names and full character are 
unknown ; the depths of whose nature have never been 

1 A small garment worn next the skin, covering the breast. It 
answers to the large garment (Talith Gadoi) worn in the synagogue. 
Both have at the corners the tassels (/V2K0, wrongly translated 
M hems" in the Eng. versions, ' ' 

* See supra; p. 67. 



126 MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY, 

fathomed in , heaven or v on v earth. But r there is an 
innumerable company in addition to these seven. 

They work evil upon human beings either r of their 
own free. will on their own account, or by command of 
the gods, who use them to execute vengeance upon the 
wicked.. 

They sow the seeds of discord in family life. They 
cause the most attached friends and even lover^ *-o detest 
each other. kTo bring about strife, quarrels and wars, is 
their delight. ; There is no disease which they may not 
induce. v Sickness, calamity, sudden death, these and all 
nameable and even conceivable , ills they produce and 
promote., 

They accomplish their nefarious ends in ways similar 
to those rampant among the Jinns or demons of other 
nations ; such as the evil eye, the magic word, by breath 
and by spittle^ 

They can be overcome and their work undone with 
the help of the supreme deities, and especially by that 
of the Magic Trinity, Ea, Marduk and Gibil. ^In this we 
have nothing really unique, though among ' the Baby- 
lonians the intervention of favourable spirits, or, if you 
will, deities, is made particularly prominent. 

But either implicitly or explicitly all efforts to frustrate 
the activity of evil spirits involve the good offices of 
friendly ones. .^Tn all 'magic and demonology. whether 
among savages or among civilized people, there is implied 
a dualism of good and evil — the counterpart and reflex 
of what is seen in human life. The modern science of 
comparative religion will render good service by showing 
the sameness, or, at any rate, the similarity of the prin- 
ciples underlying magic and demonology in all ages and 
climes. 



DEMONOLOGY 127 

COUNTERCHARMS. 

These are much the same as those we have had to 
look at as obtaining among Hebrews, Arabs and others. 

We have, as preventives, amulets, incantations and 
material agents. 

Incantations are said, but in Assyria as in Egypt it is 
the priests wha, % in the main, recite them. Each disease, 
each demon-caused evil has its peculiar formulae, and it 
required much training to know which to employ. 
Besides, in both countries the mode of repeating the 
charms—generally in a low, gurgling monotone— was of 
great moment. 

Physical agents bulk largely in Assyrian demonology. 
Many were really medicinal, and had their origin in 
their healing character, though ostensibly they were 
efficient because anti-demoniacal. In line with what we 
now call sympathetic magic, 1 fruits, animals, etc., were 
burnt, and as these disappeared in smoke and flame the 
ills also vanished. It is quite open to conjecture that 
these holocausts of fruits, animals, etc., had a sacrificial 
origin, though the conception connected with images of 
demons (see below) favours our regarding them as a part 
of sympathetic magic. 

If, as noted before, 2 an image of a demon was made, to 
injure and even to destroy the image was to bring a 
corresponding fate upon the demon whose image this 
was. 

The material of which the image was made varied 
according to the locality and the means of the person 
who wished to punish the demon in question. Wood, 
wax, clay, were among the ingredients used. 

1 Sec Jevons, p. 28 ff., and suj>ra t p* 17 L 8 See suj>ra, r p. 69, 



128 magic, divination, and demonology 

Egyptian Demonology. 
i 

The Egyptians had their gods whom they worshipped, 
and whom they invoked against the demons. For a 
succinct and up-to-date account of the Egyptian deities, 
see Wiedemann, p. 103 ff. 

But they believed equally in demons whose power 
is exercised in this world and in the next. 

Among this people, as among the Assyrians, the 
friendly and hostile deities are sharply distinguished, 
and in this case, too, magic is but the employment of 
appropriate means to bring the influence of the friendly 
deities to bear against the hostile ones. 

It is characteristic of Egyptian magic and demonology 
that they busied themselves very much with the affairs 
of the future life. This could hardly be otherwise with 
a people in whose religion the doctrine of a life to come 
constituted a very vital part. 

Demons were believed by the Egyptians, as by others, 
to bring about sickness, death, and all sorts of misfor- 
tunes. Diseases were particularly thought to be their 
work, as I have more than once had to notice. Magic 
and medicine were therefore inseparably combined, 

COUNTERCHARMS. 

These are, as before, amulets, incantations and 
material agents. 

As regards amulets, they were of various kinds and 
worn on the bodies of all sorts and conditions of men. 
Moreover, when buried with a dead body they were 
supposed to secure safe entrance into the fruitful fields 
where Osiris reigrjs, and protection during the subse- 
quent life there. 



DEMONOLOGY 129 

Wiedemann 1 gives a full account of the amulets used 
by the Egyptians for the dead and for the living. 

Incantations were also used. When a body was being 
embalmed, and afterwards when it was interred, sundry 
formulae were pronounced, generally by the priests. 

Much importance was attached to the way in which 
the incantations were said. If beautifully uttered and 
repeated* with sufficient frequency, these incantations 
possessed unlimited power. But the very conditions 
demanded, wherever possible, the services of a priest. 
Indeed prayer among the Egyptians was almost exclu- 
sively magical, i.e. its efficacy resided in the manner 
in which it was said, and not in its contents, and still less 
in subjective or ethical conditions. 

Phoenician and Syrian Magic and Demonology. 

Little has been written «on the prevalence and 
character of magic and -.demonology among these 
peoples. In the work of De la Saussaye, which deals 
briefly with the religions of the Syrians and Phoenicians, 
nothing is said of magic and related subjects. 

These peoples were in religious matters less original 
than the Hebrews, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, or the 
Arabs, and they have left fewer and less important 
remains, literary or monumental, than the other nations 
named. 

We know, however, that the Syrians believed in 
demons, and practised magic even after they embraced 
Christianity. The Syriac legends of Tur Abdin collected 
by Prym and Socin are important as showing this. (See 
index, "Damonen, etc.") 

* p. 284 ff. 

K 



X 

HO MAGIC, DIVINATrON, AND DEMONOLOGY / £ Th / 

O (* 

Wellhausen 1 refers to the legend that Simon Stylite 
banished from the land of Lebanon demons and wild 
beasts. 

Rev. G. Margoliouth, M.A., Keeper of Oriental MSS. 
in the British Museum, tells me there is but one Syriac 
MS. in the Museum containing magical charms in 
Syrfac. Two or three years ago two others were offered 
for sale to the Museum, but were refused. The Rev. 
H. Gollanz, M.A., of the Battersea Synagogue, London, 
purchased and has since made a translation of them. 
This translation he is about to publish in the transac- 
tions of some learned society. These MSS. are, how- 
ever, small and rather modern. In January, 1897, I was 
permitted to see both the MSS., and also the transla- 
tion. 

Mention may be made of the inscribed cups and bowls 
from ancient Babylon with Aramaic inscriptions. 

1 " Reste," p. IJ2 > note 2^ 



